Abstract
As a contribution to the ongoing controversy about the role of higher-order Kerr effect (HOKE) in laser filamentation, we first provide thorough details about the protocol that has been employed to infer the HOKE indices from the experiment. Next, we discuss potential sources of artifact in the experimental measurements of these terms and show that neither the value of the observed birefringence, nor its inversion, nor the intensity at which it is observed, appear to be flawed. Furthermore, we argue that, independently on our values, the principle of including HOKE is straightforward. Due to the different temporal and spectral dynamics, the respective efficiency of defocusing by the plasma and by the HOKE is expected to depend substantially on both incident wavelength and pulse duration. The discussion should therefore focus on defining the conditions where each filamentation regime dominates.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J. Kasparian, M. Rodriguez, G. Méjean, J. Yu, E. Salmon, H. Wille, R. Bourayou, S. Frey, Y.-B. André, A. Mysyrowicz, R. Sauerbrey, J.-P. Wolf, and L. Wöste, Science 301, 61 (2003).
J. Kasparian, R. Ackermann, Y.-B. André, G. Méchain, G. Méjean, B. Prade, P. Rohwetter, E. Salmon, K. Stelmaszczyk, J. Yu, A. Mysyrowicz, R. Sauerbrey, L. Wöste, and J.-P. Wolf, Opt. Express 16, 5757 (2008).
P. Rohwetter, J. Kasparian, K. Stelmaszczyk, Z. Hao, S. Henin, N. Lascoux, W. M. Nakaema, Y. Petit, M. Queißer, R. Salamé, E. Salmon, L. Wöste, and J.-P. Wolf, Nature Photon. 4, 451 (2010).
S. Tzortzakis, G. Méchain, G. Pantalano, Y. B. André, B. Prade, M. Franco, A. Mysyrowicz, J. M. Munier, M. Gheudin, G. Beaudin, and P. Encrenaz, Opt. Lett. 27, 1944 (2002).
S. L. Chin, S. A. Hosseini, W. Liu, Q. Luo, F. Théberge, N. Aközbek, A. Becker, V. P. Kandidov, O. G. Kosareva, and H. Schröder, Can. J. Phys. 83, 863 (2005).
L. Bergé, S. Skupin, R. Nuter, J. Kasparian, and J.-P. Wolf, Rep. Prog. Phys. 70, 1633 (2007).
A. Couairon and A. Mysyrowicz, Phys. Rep. 441, 47 (2007).
J. Kasparian and J.-P. Wolf, Opt. Express 16, 466 (2008).
V. Loriot, E. Hertz, O. Faucher, and B. Lavorel, Opt. Express 17, 13429 (2009); Opt. Express 18, 3011(E) (2010).
P. Béjot, J. Kasparian, S. Henin, V. Loriot, T. Vieillard, E. Hertz, O. Faucher, B. Lavorel, and J.-P. Wolf, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 103903 (2010).
W. Ettoumi, P. Bejot, Y. Petit, V. Loriot, E. Hertz, O. Faucher, B. Lavorel, J. Kasparian, and J. Wolf, Phys. Rev. A 82, 033826 (2010).
N. Aközbek, M. Scalora, C. M. Bowden, and S. L. Chin, Opt. Comm. 191, 353 (2001).
A. Vinçotte and L. Bergé, Phys. Rev. A 70, 061802(R) (2004).
G. Fibich and B. Ilan, Opt. Lett. 29, 887 (2004).
L. Bergé, S. Skupin, G. Méjean, J. Kasparian, J. Yu, S. Frey, E. Salmon, and J. P. Wolf, Phys. Rev. E 71, 016602 (2005).
J.-F. Zhang, Q. Tian, Y.-Y. Wang, C.-Q. Dai, and L. Wu, Phys. Rev. A 81, 023832 (2010).
M. Kolesik, E. M. Wright, and J. V. Moloney, Opt. Lett. 35, 2550 (2010).
P. Polynkin, M. Kolesik, E. M. Wright, and J. V. Moloney, arXiv:1010.2303vl [physics.optics] (2010).
A. Teleki, E. M. Wright, and M. Kolesik, Phys. Rev. A 82, 065801 (2010).
J. Kasparian, R. Sauerbrey, and S. L. Chin, Appl. Phys. B 71, 877 (2000).
A. Becker, N. Aközbek, K. Vijayalakshmi, E. Oral, C. M. Bowden, and S. L. Chin, Appl. Phys. B 73, 287 (2001).
H. Stapelfeldt and T. Seideman, Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 543 (2003).
T. Seideman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4971 (1999).
F. Rosca-Pruna and M. J. J. Vrakking, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 153902 (2001).
V. Renard, M. Renard, A. Rouzé, S. Guérin, H. R. Jauslin, B. Lavorel, and O. Faucher, Phys. Rev. A 70, 033420 (2004).
V. Renard, M. Renard, S. Guérin, Y. T. Pashayan, B. Lavorel, O. Faucher, and H. R. Jauslin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 153601 (2003).
A. Rouzé, V. Renard, B. Lavorel, and O. Faucher, J. Phys. B 38, 2329 (2005).
V. Loriot, P. Tzallas, E. P. Benis, E. Hertz, B. Lavorel, D. Charalambidis, and O. Faucher, J. Phys. B 40, 2503 (2007).
R. W. Boyd, Nonlinear Optics, 3rd ed. (Academic, Boston, 2008).
J. R. Lalanne, A. Ducasse, and S. Kielich, Laser-Molecule Interaction: Laser Physics and Molecular Nonlinear Optics (Wiley, New York, 1996).
J. Arabat and J. Etchepare, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 10, 2377 (1993).
P. Béjot, Y. Petit, L. Bonacina, J. Kasparian, M. Moret, and J.-P. Wolf, Opt. Express 16, 7564 (2008).
Y. Petit, P. Béjot, L. Bonacina, J. Kasparian, M. Moret, and J.-P. Wolf, Laser Phys. 19, 336 (2009).
C. Marceau, S. Ramakrishna, S. Génier, T.-J. Wang, Y. Chen, F. Théberge, M. Chateauneuf, J. Dubois, T. Seideman, and S. L. Chin, Opt. Comm. 283, 2732 (2010).
S. Tzortzakis, B. Prade, M. Franco, and A. Mysyrowicz, Opt. Commun. 181, 123 (2000).
P. Sprangle, E. Esarey, and B. Hafizi, Phys. Rev. E 56, 5894 (1997).
A. Talebpour, J. Yang, and S. L. Chin, Opt. Commun. 163, 29 (1999).
M. Nurhuda, A. Suda, and K. Midorikawa, Phys. Rev. A 66, 041802 (2002).
M. Nurhuda, A. Suda, and K. Midorikawa, New J. Phys. 10, 053006 (2008).
C. Brée, A. Demircan, and G. Steinmeyer, “Saturation of the All-Optical Kerr Effect,” WIAS Preprint no 1540 (2010), available from http://www.wias-berlin.de/preprint/1540/wias-preprints-1540.pdf (to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett.).
P. B. Corkum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1994 (1993).
J. Itatani, J. Levesque, D. Zeidler, H. Niikura, H. Pepin, J. C. Kieffer, P. B. Corkum, and D. M. Villeneuve, Nature 432, 867 (2004).
A. Dogariu, T. Xia, D. J. Hagan, A. A. Said, E. W. Van Stryland, and N. Bloembergen, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14, 796 (1997).
C. Minhaeng, D. Mei, N. F. Scherer, G. R. Fleming, and S. Mukamel, J. Chem. Phys. 99, 2410 (1993).
B. Lavorel, O. Faucher, M. Morgen, and R. Chaux, J. Raman Spectrosc. 31, 77 (2000).
S. Smolorz and F. Wise, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 17, 1636 (2000).
A. Dubietis, E. Gaizauskas, G. Tamosauskas, and P. D. Trapani, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 253903 (2004).
W. Ettoumi, Y. Petit, J. Kasparian, and J.-P. Wolf, Opt. Express 18, 6613 (2010).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Text © Astro, Ltd., 2011.
The article is published in the original.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Loriot, V., Béjot, P., Ettoumi, W. et al. On negative higher-order Kerr effect and filamentation. Laser Phys. 21, 1319–1328 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1054660X11130196
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1054660X11130196