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Modifications of filament spectra by shaped octave-spanning laser pulses

Authors :: Alexander Patas
Sylvain Hermelin
Julien Gateau
Jean-Pierre Wolf
Albrecht Lindinger
Jérôme Kasparian
Mary Matthews
Freie Universität Berlin
Group of Applied Physics [Geneva] (GAP)
University of Geneva [Switzerland]
Institut Lumière Matière [Villeurbanne] (ILM)
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL)
Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Institute for Environmental Sciences [Geneva] (ISE)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL)
Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon
Source :: Physical Review. A, Vol. 98 (2018) P. 033804, Physical Review A, Physical Review A, American Physical Society 2018, 98 (3), pp.033804. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.98.033804⟩
Publication Year :: 2018
Publisher :: American Physical Society (APS), 2018.
Abstract: In this paper we examine the spectral changes in a white light laser filament due to different pulse shapes generated by a pulse shaping setup. We particularly explore how the properties of the filament spectra can be controlled by parametrically tailored white light pulses. The experiments are carried out in a gas cell with up to 9 bar of argon. Plasma generation and self-phase modulation strongly affect the pulse in the spectral and temporal domain. By exploiting these effects we show that the pulse spectrum can be modified in a desired way by either using second order parametric chirp functions to shift the filament spectrum to higher or lower wavelengths, or by optimizing pulse shapes with a genetic algorithm to generate more complex filament spectra. This paper is one of the first examples of the application of complex, parametrically shaped white light pulses.<br />14 pages, 7 figures