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Filamentation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in air is accompanied by a fairly strong release of optical energy into the propagation medium due to laser-induced ionization of air molecules and production of an underdense plasma of charged species. We present the results of our laboratory experiments and numerical simulations aimed to the estimation of energy deposition amount by laser filament upon propagation in air depending on the conditions of spatial focusing, pulse energy, and radiation wavelength. For the first time to our knowledge, our study reveals a more than 50% decrease in the filament energy deposited in air in the range of moderate numerical aperture values, approximately from 0.003 to 0.007, at the carrier wavelengths of 740 nm and 470 nm. We attribute such a considerable reduction in the laser pulse energy release for femtosecond plasma to the competing effects of Kerr self-focusing and geometric divergence of focused laser pulse.

Multilayer microparticles with a liquid core and a polycomposite light-absorbing shell (microcapsules) are important components of modern bio- and medical technologies. Opening of the microcapsule shell and payload release can be realized by optical radiation. The photophoretic force is due to the radiation-stimulated thermal gradient and arises from the temperature inhomogeneity of the microparticle. Photophoretic forces, as well as radiation pressure forces, are inherently mechanical forces and can cause microcapsules to move during the opening cycle. We numerically simulate the microcapsule photophoretic motion when illuminated by an intense laser pulse. Numerical calculations of the temperature field in a spherical microcapsule are carried out using the finite element method, taking into account the auxiliary nanoparticles, which are randomly distributed around the capsule and serve to enhance the heating of the capsule under short pulse exposure. The spatial distribution of the absorbed optical power as well as the temporal dynamics of microcapsule heating depending of its size are investigated in detail. We show, for the first time to our knowledge, that under the action of photophoretic gradient, the microcapsule can move along the laser incidence direction both forward and backward at the distance of several tens of nanometers depending on the particle size and conditions of optical absorption., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

Conventional projection Talbot lithography usually employs opaque (amplitude) or transparent (phase) masks for creating a periodic array of Fresnel diffraction fringes in the photosensitive substrate. For particular mask design the longitudinal periodicity of Talbot carpet can be avoided producing quasi uniform striped pattern (Talbot stripes). We propose a novel hybrid amplitude-phase mask which is engineered for obtaining extremely smooth Talbot stripes and simultaneously high lateral optical contrast and extreme spatial resolution better than a third of laser wavelength. By means of the numerical simulations, we demonstrate the robustness of produced striped diffraction patterns against mask design deviation and light incidence angle variations. The reproducibility of the Talbot stripes is reported also for 1D and 2D metal-dielectric projection masks., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures

We present the physical concept and sample engineering design of a new miniature pressure sensor based on the whispering gallery modes (WGMs) optically excited in a dielectric microsphere placed near a flexible reflective membrane which acts as an ambient pressure sensing element. WGMs excitation is carried out by free-space coupling of optical radiation to a microsphere. The distinctive feature of proposed sensor design is double excitation of optical eigenmodes by forward and backward propagating radiation reflected from a membrane that causes WGMs interference in particle volume. The optical intensity of resulting resonant field established in the microsphere carries information about the exact position of the pressure-loaded reflecting membrane. The sensitivity of the proposed sensor strongly depends on the quality factor of the excited resonant mode, as well as geometrical and mechanical parameters of the flexible membrane. Important advantages of the proposed sensor are miniature design (linear sensor dimensions depends only on the membrane diameter) and the absence of a mechanical contact of pressure-sensitive element with WGM resonator., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

Propagation of a tightly focused high-power ultrashort laser pulse in an optical medium is usually substantially influenced by the medium optical nonlinearity that can noticeably affect the laser pulse parameters around the nonlinear focus and lead to unavoidable and often undesirable spatial distortions of the focal waist. We present the results of our experimental study and numerical simulations on a femtosecond Ti-Sapphire laser pulse propagation in air under different spatial focusing. We concentrated our study on spectral-angular and spatial pulse transformations under different focusing regimes, from linear to nonlinear one, when pulse filamentation occurs. For the first time to the best of our knowledge, we found the laser pulse numerical apertures range,namely, from NA=0.002 to 0.005 (for laser pulse energy of 1 mJ), where the laser pulse distortions both in frequency-angular spectrum and pulse spatial shape are minimal. By means of the numerical simulations, we found the threshold pulse energy and peak power in a wide range of focusing conditions, within which a transition between the linear and strongly nonlinear laser pulse focusing in air takes place. This energy limit is shown to decrease with pulse numerical aperture enhancement. Our findings identify the laser pulse numerical apertures and energy adequate for getting a maximum laser intensity with a good beam quality around the focal point suitable for various laser micropatterning and micromachining technologies.

Multiple filamentation in air of high-power ultrashort laser radiation with transverse intensity profile resembling a "corona" composed by incoherent combining of several annularly distributed independent top-hat sub-beams is theoretically studied. Through the numerical solution of time-averaged nonlinear Schrodinger equation, we study the spatio-angular dynamics of synthesized near-infrared "corona-beam" (CB) along the optical path by varying the number and power of the beamlets (corona-spikes). For the first time to our knowledge, the evident advances in the multiple filamentation region manipulating of synthesized CB are demonstrated. Particularly, by adjusting the number and aperture of the constituting sub-beams it makes possible to significantly delay the CB filamentation onset distance and increase the filamentation length in air. In addition, at the post-filamentation stage of femtosecond pulse propagation under certain conditions the synthesized corona-beams exhibit significantly lower angular divergence of its most intense part (post-filamentation light channel) compared to the beams with regular uni-modal intensity profiles (Gaussian, plateau-like) that provides enhancing of laser power delivered to the receiver over the atmospheric links., Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures

The possibility of overcoming the critical condition for localized photonic nanojet upon plane optical wave diffraction at mesoscale dielectric particle, which is commonly known as "the refractive index contrast is less than two", was recently reported in our works. To this end, the novel geometrical scheme of photonic nanojet generation in "reflection mode" was proposed based on a super-contrast microparticle (n~2) placed near a flat mirror. In this paper, through the numerical FDTD calculations of optical near-field structure of 2D and 3D dielectric microparticles (cylinder, sphere) we extend our considerations to the case of oblique particle-at-mirror illumination and present new physical phenomena arising in the considered photonic geometry. Those are the generation of a quasi-retrograde photonic nanojet following the inclined particle illumination and the formation of a curvilinear spatial region of optical field localization in the form of a "specular reflection photonic hook" (s-Hook). Two different regimes of s-Hook formation are analyzed by changing the direction of light incidence and by flat mirror rotation., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures