34 research outputs found
Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena
Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena, 2e serves as an introduction to the phenomena of ultra short laser pulses and describes how this technology can be used to examine problems in areas such as electromagnetism, optics, and quantum mechanics. Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena combines theoretical backgrounds and experimental techniques and will serve as a manual on designing and constructing femtosecond (""faster than electronics"") systems or experiments from scratch. Beyond the simple optical system, the various sources of ultrashort pulses are presented, again with emphasis on the basi
HV discharge acceleration by sequences of UV laser filaments with visible and near-infrared pulses
We investigate the triggering and guiding of DC high-voltage discharges over
a distance of 37 cm by filaments produced by ultraviolet (266 nm) laser pulses
of 200 ps duration. The latter reduce the breakdown electric field by half and
allow up to 80% discharge probability in an electric field of 920 kV/m. This
high efficiency is not further increased by adding nanosecond pulses in the
Joule range at 532 nm and 1064 nm. However, the latter statistically increases
the guiding length, thereby accelerating the discharge by a factor of 2. This
effect is due both to photodetachment and to the heating of the plasma channel,
that increases the efficiency of avalanche ionization and reduces electron
attachment and recombination.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure