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We formulate a multi-physics model to describe the nonlinear propagation of a femtosecond, near-infrared, tightly focused laser pulse in a transparent dielectric. The application of our model to the case of bulk sapphire shows that even under extreme excitation conditions, ionization is universally clamped at about one tenth of the electron density in the upper valence band. The earlier estimate of ~10 TPa pressure that could be attainable through the internal excitation of transparent dielectrics by tightly focused ultrafast laser beams is shown to be off by two orders of magnitude.

We quantify the dependence of the single-shot ablation threshold on the angle of incidence and polarization of a femtosecond laser beam, for three dissimilar solid-state materials: a metal, a dielectric and a semiconductor. Using the constant, linear value of the index of refraction, we calculate the laser fluence transmitted through the air-material interface at the point of ablation threshold. We show that, in spite of the highly nonlinear ionization dynamics involved in the ablation process, the so defined transmitted threshold fluence is universally independent of the angle of incidence and polarization of the laser beam for all three material types. We suggest that angular dependence of ablation threshold can be utilized for profiling fluence distributions in ultra-intense femtosecond laser beams., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

The propagation of intense picosecond laser pulses in air in the presence of strong nonlinear self-action effects and air ionization is investigated experimentally and numerically. The model used for numerical analysis is based on the nonlinear propagator for the optical field coupled with the rate equations for the production of various ionic species and plasma temperature. Our results show that the phenomenon of plasma-driven intensity clamping, which is paramount in femtosecond laser filamentation, holds for picosecond pulses. Furthermore, the temporal pulse distortions are limited and the pulse fluence is also clamped. The resulting unique feature of the picosecond filamentation regime is the production of a broad, fully ionized air channel, continuous both longitudinally and transversely, which may be instrumental for numerous applications., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We report the fabrication of large-area phase masks on thin fused-silica substrates that are suitable for shaping multi-terawatt femtosecond laser beams. We apply these phase masks for the generation of intense femtosecond optical vortices. We further quantify distortions of the vortex beam patterns that result from several common types of mask defects., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures

We report experiments on the generation of third and fifth harmonics of millijoule-level, tightly focused, femtosecond laser pulses at 2.2 {\mu}m wavelength in air. The measured ratio of yields of the third and fifth harmonics in our setup is about 2 \cdot 10-4. This result contradicts the recent suggestion that the Kerr effect in air saturates and changes sign in ultra-intense optical fields., Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures

Since their discovery in the mid-1990s, ultrafast laser filaments in gases have been described as products of a dynamic balance between Kerr self-focusing and defocusing by free electric charges that are generated via multi-photon ionization on the beam axis. This established paradigm has been recently challenged by a suggestion that the Kerr effect saturates and even changes sign at high intensity of light, and that this sign reversal, not free-charge defocusing, is the dominant mechanism responsible for the extended propagation of laser filaments. We report qualitative tests of the new theory based on electrical and optical measurements of plasma density in femtosecond laser filaments in air and argon. Our results consistently support the established paradigm., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

The primary aim of the present paper is to attract the attention of particle physicists to new developments in studying squeezed and correlated states of the electromagnetic field as well as of those working on the latest topic to new findings about multiplicity distributions in quantum chromodynamics. The new types of nonclassical states used in quantum optics as squeezed states, correlated states, even and odd coherent states (Schr\"odinger cat states) for one--mode and multimode interaction are reviewed. Their distribution functions are analyzed according to the method used first for multiplicity distributions in high energy particle interactions. The phenomenon of oscillations of particle distribution functions of the squeezed fields is described and confronted to the phenomenon of oscillations of cumulant moments of some distributions for squeezed and correlated field states. Possible extension of the method to fields different from the electromagnetic field (gluons, pions, etc.) is speculated., Comment: 46 pages,latex,Report of Lebedev Physics Institute 1994

The cumulants and factorial moments of photon distribution for squeezed and correlated light are calculated in terms of Chebyshev, Legendre and Laguerre polynomials. The phenomenon of strong oscillations of the ratio of the cumulant to factorial moment is found., Comment: LATEX, 16 pages,5 figures, INFN-NA-IV-94/22, DSF-T-94/22