Multi-terawatt 10 μm pulse atmospheric delivery over multiple Rayleigh ranges

Kolja Schuh, Paris Panagiotopoulos, Miroslav Kolesik, Stephan W. Koch, Jerome V. Moloney

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

We predict that long wavelength self-trapped multi-terawatt pulses can be sustained over multiple kilometers in the atmosphere. Unlike filaments, these pulses exhibit low loss propagation and retain most of their launch power at range. A novel mechanism involving an aggregation of weakly linear and nonlinear cumulative optical responses is shown to be responsible and is dominated by an ultrafast dynamical lensing resulting from a field intensity driven many-body Coulomb mediated free electron polarization associated with spatially separated species in the gas. An initial few picosecond pulse can compress down to 140 fs over multiple kilometers.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3722-3725
Number of pages4
JournalOptics letters
Volume42
Issue number19
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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