Abstract

Filamentation is a nonlinear propagation process due to the balance between self-focusing, caused by Kerr effect, and defocusing associated with the electron plasma generated by the ionization process of the medium. The nonlinear propagation broadens the spectrum of the incident ultrashort pulses leading to supercontinuum radiation. The generation of supercontinuum in bulk crystals and its control [1], as well as the generation of multiple filaments with control over their spatial distribution [2] and size [3] is being investigated due to their several applications. Among them, filamentation based cancer radiotherapy or the generation of supercontinuum sources for OCT image are remarkable examples.

© 2017 IEEE