Effect of input pulse chirp on nonlinear energy deposition and plasma excitation in water

TL;DR

This study investigates how input pulse chirp influences nonlinear energy deposition and plasma formation in water, demonstrating that chirp adjustment can effectively control plasma characteristics and energy transfer.

Contribution

The paper provides a combined numerical and experimental analysis of pulse chirp effects on plasma formation in water, highlighting a simple method to tune plasma properties.

Findings

Chirp significantly affects energy deposition and plasma distribution.

Different focusing geometries influence plasma characteristics.

Chirp tuning offers a practical way to control plasma features.

Abstract

We analyze numerically and experimentally the effect of the input pulse chirp on the nonlinear energy deposition from $5\ \mu$J fs-pulses at $800$ nm to water. Numerical results are also shown for pulses at $400$ nm, where linear losses are minimized, and for different focusing geometries. Input chirp is found to have a big impact on the deposited energy and on the plasma distribution around focus, thus providing a simple and effective mechanism to tune the electron density and energy deposition. We identify three relevant ways in which plasma features may be tuned.