Extreme nonlinear optics with self-bending airy beams

The propagation of ultra-intense self-bending Airy beams in linear optics transparent dielectric media is studied. The most unusual property of an Airy beam is its ability to self-bend on propagation, when the entire beam pattern shifts sideways and traverses a parabolic trajectory. This mechanical free-fall, such self-bending is sometimes referred to as beam acceleration. The dominant sub-pulse in the temporal Airy wavepacket propagates with a speed that is different from the group velocity of light in the medium and accelerates upon propagation. Researchers have realized Airy beams in the area of ultra-intense femtosecond nonlinear optics. In these experiments, 35-fs-long pulses with multi-mJ pulse energy and a Gaussian beam profile were transformed into femtosecond Airy beams by using a transmissive cubic phase mask and lens focusing. The numerical modeling of filamentation with Airy beams revealed that, at low pulse energies, the generated plasma channels were continuous.