Pump-probe imaging of nanosecond laser-induced bubbles in distilled water solutions: Observations of laser-produced-plasma.

This article presents the analysis of the laser-produced-plasma (LPP) formed by the focusing of a 9 ns laser pulse, λ=532 nm, with a NA=0.6 aspherical lens using energies between 100-1500 μJ, into distilled water with varying solutions of table salt. Observations of the filamentation plasma were made, which are explained by self-focusing of the laser pulse by the LPP through ponderomotive cavitation of the electron plasma in the center of the beam. The filamentation of the beam through a low density plasma wave guide explains why the transmission of the pump laser through the interaction region was notably higher on previous experiments that we performed [R. Evans et al., Opt. Express 16, 7481 (2008)], than a very similar set of experiments performed by Noack and Vogel [IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 35, 1156 (1999)]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]