Related papers: HV discharges triggered by dual- and triple-freque…
We investigate the triggering and guiding of DC high-voltage discharges over a distance of 37 cm by filaments produced by ultraviolet (266 nm) laser pulses of 200 ps duration. The latter reduce the breakdown electric field by half and allow…
The electric conductivity, HV discharge triggering and guiding capabilities of filaments at 3.9 micrometer in air are investigated in the perspective of lightning control applications, and compared to near-IR filaments in identical…
We investigate the influence of ultrashort laser filaments on high-voltage discharges and spark-free unloading at various repetition rates and wind conditions. For electric fields well below, close to and above the threshold for discharges,…
Non-self-sustained electric discharge and electric breakdown were triggered and guided by a train of picosecond UV pulses overlapped with a long free-running UV pulse of a hybrid Ti:Sapphire-KrF laser facility. Photocurrent sustained by…
We demonstrate that phase-matched frequency upconversion of ultrafast laser light can be extended to shorter wavelengths by using longer driving laser wavelengths. Experimentally, we show that the phase-matching cutoff for harmonic…
We experimentally investigate fluctuations in the spectrum of ultrashort laser pulses propagating in air, close to the critical power for filamentation. Increasing the laser peak power broadens the spectrum while the beam approaches the…
We investigate ablation experiments performed by laser-plasma-filament guided electrical discharges at high-voltages of up to 145 kV. The guiding was accomplished via fs-laser-generated plasma filaments across a gap of 201 mm of air onto…
The effects of the discharge voltage on the formation and nature of electric field transients in a symmetric, collisionless, very high frequency, capacitively coupled plasma are studied using a self-consistent particle-in-cell (PIC)…
Using quantum electrodynamics particle-in-cell simulations, we optimize the gamma flare ($\gamma$-flare) generation scheme from interaction of high power petawatt-class laser pulse with tailored cryogenic hydrogen target having extended…
The increasing availability of high-power Yb-based ultrafast laser-amplifier systems has opened the possibility of air filamentation at high repetition rates >1 kHz. In this new regime, accumulation effects cannot be ruled out, therefore,…
It is shown by multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that intense secondary whistler waves with special vortex-like field topology can be excited by a relativistic laser pulse in the highly magnetized, near-critical density plasma.…
After the successful fusion ignition at National Ignition Facility, seeking for a high-gain fusion scheme becomes the next hot-spot in inertial confinement fusion community. Fast ignition provides an alternative due to its potential to…
Manipulating at will the propagation dynamics of high power laser pulses is a long-standing dream whose accomplishment would lead to the control of a plethora of fascinating physical phenomena emerging from laser-matter interaction. The…
Irradiation of a thin metallic wire with an intense femtosecond laser pulse creates a strong discharge wave that travels as a narrow pulse along the wire surface. The travelling discharge efficiently emits secondary radiation with spectral…
Powerful laser-plasma processes are explored to generate discharge currents of a few $100\,$kA in coil targets, yielding magnetostatic fields (B-fields) in excess of $0.5\,$kT. The quasi-static currents are provided from hot electron…
Using a high-frequency field superposed to a linearly polarized bichromatic laser field composed by a wave with frequency $\omega $ and a wave with frequency $2\omega $, we show it is possible to enhance the intensity of a group of high…
A novel method for converting an array of out-of-phase lasers into one of in-phase lasers that can be tightly focused is presented. The method exploits second harmonic generation and can be adapted for different laser arrays geometries.…
We present a novel spectroscopic technique for second harmonic generation (SHG) using femtosecond laser pulses at 30~kHz repetition rate, which nevertheless provides high spectral resolution limited only by the spectrometer. The potential…
Multi-filamentation opens new degrees of freedom for manipulating electromagnetic waves in air. However, without control, multiple filament interactions, including attraction, repulsion or fusion often result in formation of complex…
It is demonstrated by single-atom simulations that X-ray signals in the 3.4 to 4 keV region from an 8 micron laser driven high harmonic generation can be increased by more than two orders of magnitude when a single-cycle pulse centered at…