1. Collision-mediated ultrafast decay of N2 fluorescence during fs-laser-induced filamentation
- Author
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Genggeng Li, Huaming Hou, Tao Liu, Sheng-Nian Luo, and Pengxu Ran
- Subjects
Materials science ,business.industry ,Laser ,Molecular physics ,Fluorescence ,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics ,Spectral line ,Ion ,law.invention ,Optics ,Filamentation ,law ,Excited state ,Spontaneous emission ,Laser-induced fluorescence ,business - Abstract
We investigate experimentally spatiotemporal characteristics of fluorescence emission from fs-laser-induced filaments in air. Emissions accompanying the transitions of N2 (C3Πu−B3Πg) and N 2+ (B2Σu+−X2Σg+) are dominant. The decay dynamics of fluorescence from different radial positions and longitudinal sections of a filament column are obtained along with high resolution spectra. A decay curve contains two exponential components: a fast one (with a decay time constant ∼10s ps), and a slow one (∼sub-ns). The lifetime of the N 2 fluorescence is about three orders shorter than its spontaneous emission lifetime, indicating that most of the N 2 molecules in the excited state (C3Πu) are de-excited through collision. Different de-excitation mechanisms of N 2 (C3Πu) molecules contributing to fluorescence decay constants, e.g., the e −−N2, N 2−N2, and O 2−N2 collisions, are elucidated. We analyze the variations of decay constants together with corresponding fluorescence intensities, and obtain temperature distributions by fitting band spectra of N 2 molecules and N 2+ ions with a synthetic spectral model. Our results suggest that the fast and slow decay processes originate from the e −−N2 and O 2−N2 collisions, respectively.
- Published
- 2019
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