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Experiments have been performed at hybrid Ti:sapphire/KrF laser facility GARPUN-MTW to develop a novel technique to create a hollow-core sliding-mode plasma-filament waveguide for directed transfer of microwave radiation. Efficient multiphoton air ionization was produced by a train of picosecond 1-TW UV pulses at 248 nm wavelength, or by amplitude-modulated 100 ns pulse combining a short-pulse train with a free-running 1-GW pulse, which detached electrons off O2- ions. Multiple filamentation of UV laser radiation in air was observed, and filamentation theory based on resonance-enhanced ionization was developed to explain the experimental results.

The electron spin of nitrogen--vacancy (NV) centers in diamond offers a solid-state quantum bit and enables high-precision magnetic-field sensing on the nanoscale. Implementation of these approaches in a fiber format would offer unique opportunities for a broad range of technologies ranging from quantum information to neuroscience and bioimaging. Here, we demonstrate an ultracompact fiber-optic probe where a diamond microcrystal with a well-defined orientation of spin quantization NV axes is attached to the fiber tip, allowing the electron spins of NV centers to be manipulated, polarized, and read out through a fiber-optic waveguide integrated with a two-wire microwave transmission line. The microwave field transmitted through this line is used to manipulate the orientation of electron spins in NV centers through the electron-spin resonance tuned by an external magnetic field. The electron spin is then optically initialized and read out, with the initializing laser radiation and the photoluminescence spin-readout return from NV centers delivered by the same optical fiber.