Optical vortex coronagraph imaging of a laser-induced plasma filament

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of an optical vortex coronagraph to measure the phase profile of a laser-induced plasma filament with higher sensitivity than traditional methods, enabling advanced plasma diagnostics.

Contribution

It introduces a high sensitivity optical vortex coronagraph technique for plasma imaging, surpassing existing holographic and direct imaging methods.

Findings

Sensitivity of 0.046 waves achieved

Superior to holographic and direct imaging

Potential applications in bioimaging and plasma diagnostics

Abstract

A high contrast imaging technique based on an optical vortex coronagraph (OVC) is used to measure the spatial phase profile induced by an air plasma generated by a femtosecond laser pulse. The sensitivity of the OVC method significantly surpassed both in-line holographic and direct imaging methods based on air plasma fluorescence. The estimated phase sensitivity of 0.046 waves provides opportunities for OVC applications in areas such as bioimaging, material characterization, as well as plasma diagnostics.