Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Physics
Optical Propagation Of Self-Sustaining Wavefronts And Nonlinear Dynamics In Parabolic Multimode Fibers, Matthew Mills
Optical Propagation Of Self-Sustaining Wavefronts And Nonlinear Dynamics In Parabolic Multimode Fibers, Matthew Mills
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The aim of this thesis is to introduce my work which has generally been focused on optical wavefronts that have the unusual property of resisting commonplace phenomena such as diffraction and dispersion. Interestingly, these special beams are found both in linear and nonlinear situations. For example, in the linear regime, localized spatio-temporal waves which resemble the spherical harmonic symmetries of the hydrogen quantum orbitals can simultaneously negotiate both diffractive and dispersive effects. In the nonlinear regime, dressed optical filaments can be arranged to propagate multi-photon produced plasma channels orders of magnitude longer than expected. The first portion of this dissertation …
Femtosecond Filament Interaction As A Probe For Molecular Alignment, Erik Mckee
Femtosecond Filament Interaction As A Probe For Molecular Alignment, Erik Mckee
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Femtosecond laser filamentation is a highly nonlinear propagation mode. When a laser pulse propagates with a peak power exceeding a critical value Pcr (5 GW at 800 nm in air), the Kerr effect tends to collapse the beam until the intensity is high enough to ionize the medium, giving rise to plasma defocusing. A dynamic competition between these two effects takes place leaving a thin and weakly ionized plasma channel in the trail of the pulse. When an ultrafast laser pulse interacts with molecules, it will align them, spinning them about their axis of polarization. As the quantum rotational wave …