Physics Commons^™

Interaction Of Ultrashort-Laser Pulses With Induced Undercritical Plasmas In Fused Silica, Jeremy Gulley, Sebastian Winkler, William Dennis, Carl Liebig, Razvan Stoian

Jeremy R. Gulley

Ultrafast light-material interactions near the damage threshold are often studied using postmortem analysis of damaged dielectric materials. Corresponding simulations of ultrashort pulse propagation through the material are frequently used to gain additional insight into the processes leading to such damage. However, comparison between such experimental and numerical results is often qualitative, and pulses near to but not exceeding the damage threshold leave no permanent changes in the material for postmortem analysis. In this article, a series of experiments is presented that measures the near- and far-field properties of a 140-fs laser pulse after propagation through a fused silica sample in …