2013/11/07 by N. Jhajj, E. W. Rosenthal, Jhajj, N. +7 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Optics (physics.optics) #Solid State Laser Technologies #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1311.1846
11 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2013/11/07 · openalex publication_date 2013/11/07 · arxiv updated 2013/11/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We demonstrate that femtosecond filaments can set up an extended and robust thermal waveguide structure in air with a lifetime of several milliseconds, making possible the very long range guiding and distant projection of high energy laser pulses and high average power beams. As a proof of principle, we demonstrate guiding of 110 mJ, 7 ns, 532 nm pulses with 90% throughput over ~15 Rayleigh lengths in a 70 cm long air waveguide generated by the long timescale thermal relaxation of an array of femtosecond filaments. The guided pulse was limited only by our available laser energy. In general, these waveguides should be robust against the effects of thermal blooming of extremely high average power laser beams.