Abstract

In this Letter we provide what is believed to be the first experimental evidence of suppression of the number of filaments for high-intensity laser pulses propagating in air by beam astigmatism. We also show that the number, pattern, and spatial stability of the filaments can be controlled by varying the angle that a focusing lens makes with the axial direction of propagation. This new methodology can be useful for applications involving atmospheric propagation, such as remote sensing.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

Multiple filamentation induced by input-beam ellipticity

Audrius Dubietis, Gintaras Tamos̆auskas, Gadi Fibich, and Boaz Ilan
Opt. Lett. 29(10) 1126-1128 (2004)

Dependence of multiple filamentation on beam ellipticity

Taylor D. Grow and Alexander L. Gaeta
Opt. Express 13(12) 4594-4599 (2005)

Optimization of multiple filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses in air using a pinhole

Zuo-Qiang Hao, Jie Zhang, Ting-Ting Xi, Xiao-Hui Yuan, Zhi-Yuan Zheng, Xin Lu, Ming-Young Yu, Yu-Tong Li, Zhao-Hua Wang, Wei Zhao, and Zhi-Yi Wei
Opt. Express 15(24) 16102-16109 (2007)

Control of the configuration of multiple femtosecond filaments in air by adaptive wavefront manipulation

Alexander C. Englesbe, Zhaohan He, John A. Nees, Alexander G.R. Thomas, Andreas Schmitt-Sody, and Karl Krushelnick
Opt. Express 24(6) 6071-6082 (2016)

Deterministic vectorial effects lead to multiple filamentation

G. Fibich and B. Ilan
Opt. Lett. 26(11) 840-842 (2001)