Self-Compression and Controllable Guidance of Multi-Millijoule Femtosecond Laser Pulses

TL;DR

This paper investigates self-compression of high-energy femtosecond laser pulses in pressurized gases, demonstrating controllable pulse shaping and intensity enhancement through nonlinear propagation modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a method for controllably compressing multi-millijoule femtosecond pulses in helium and neon using nonlinear propagation effects modeled by the (3+1)D nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

Findings

Significant pulse self-compression observed in pressurized gases.

Controllable pulse parameters achieved by adjusting pulse energy and gas pressure.

Model accurately predicts pulse dynamics and compression behavior.

Abstract

Self-compression of multi-millijoule femtosecond laser pulses and dramatic increase of the peak intensity are found in pressurized helium and neon within a range of intensity in which the ionization modification of the material parameters by the pulse is negligible. The pulse propagation is studied by the (3+1)-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger equation including basic lowest order optical processes -- diffraction, group velocity dispersion of second order, and Kerr nonlinearity of third order. Smooth and well controllable pulse propagation dynamics is found. Constructing of compressed pulse of controllable parameters at given space target point can be achieved by a proper chose of the pulse energy and/or gas pressure.