DOI: 10.

1007/s003400100738
Appl. Phys. B 74, 6776 (2002)
Lasers and Optics
Applied Physics B
s.l. chin
1
a. talebpour
1
j. yang
1
s. petit
1
v.p. kandidov
2
o.g. kosareva
2,
m.p. tamarov
2
Filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses in
turbulent air
1
Center for Optics, Photonics and Lasers, Department of Physics, Laval University, Quebec, G1K 7P4,
Canada
2
International Laser Center, Physics Department, Moscow State University, 119 899, Moscow, Russia
Received: 23 May 2001/Revised version: 26 September 2001
Published online: 29 November 2001 Springer-Verlag 2001
ABSTRACT Formation and wandering of laments in air are
studied both experimentally and numerically. Filament-center
deections are collected from 1100 shots of 190-fs and 800-nm
pulses in the plane perpendicular to the propagation direction.
To calculate the lament wandering in air we have developed
a model of powerful femtosecond laser pulse lamentation
in the Kolmogorov atmospheric turbulence and employed the
Monte Carlo method to model the propagation of several hun-
dred laser pulses. Statistical processing of experimental and
numerical data shows that lament-center displacements in the
transverse plane obey the Rayleigh-distribution law. Parameters
of the Rayleigh distribution obtained for numerical and experi-
mental data are close to each other.
PACS 42.68.Bz; 42.65.Jx; 02.70.Uu
1 Introduction
First experiments on long-range lamentation of
powerful femtosecond laser pulses in air were performed
in the middle-1990s in several laboratories [13]. In these
experiments 150230 fs and 550 GW laser pulses from
Ti:sapphire laser amplication systems operating at
775800 nm produced light laments with the length of tens
of meters. The remarkable feature of these laments is that
along most of the propagation distance more than 10% of the
pulse energy is localized in the near-axis area with the diam-
eter of about 100 microns.
From the point of view of nonlinear optics the lamen-
tation phenomenon is a small-scale transient self-focusing of
laser radiation in air [4]. Self-focusing originates from the
Kerr effect, which provides the increase in the nonlinear re-
fractive index with the increase in the light-eld intensity. If
the pulse peak power is not larger than approximately eight
threshold powers for self-focusing in air, only one lament
is created [3]. With increasing peak power two or more la-
ments can be observed [5]. For an initially focused beam the
lamentation starts right beyond the lens focal point [6]. Fil-
Fax: +7-095/939-3113, E-mail: kosareva@msuilc.ilc.msu.su
amentation of focused subpicosecond laser pulses with cen-
tral wavelength 248 nm was experimentally and numerically
studied [7]. For the laser pulse used in this experiment 50%of
the input energy was lost in the nonlinear focus and 40% was
contained in the divergent beamsurrounding the lament. The
lament itself contained 10%of the input laser energy.
Filamentation with various temporal lengths and various
laser wavelengths is discussed in [8]. Experiments were per-
formed using two laser systems: a Nd:YLF laser system with
525-fs pulses and a wavelength of 1053 nm and a Ti:sapphire
laser system with 60-fs pulses and a wavelength of 795 nm.
The length of the lament produced by 60-fs pulses with peak
power of the order of 300 GW was more than 200 m. At the
same time the length of the lament produced by 525-fs pulses
with peak power of the order of 40 GW was approximately
50 m. In the case of 525-fs pulses and a peak power larger than
30 GW several (34) laments were observed at the distance
of lament formation.
Small-scale self-focusing of laser pulses in condensed me-
dia was intensively discussed in the 1960s and 1970s in the
context of laser thermonuclear fusion studies (see e.g. [9
12]). Observation of self-focusing in air has become avail-
able with the advent of laser systems that produce powerful
femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses. For longer pulse
duration self-focusing in air is suppressed by the nonlinear
effects with lower threshold powers: heat defocusing and op-
tical breakdown [12]. For femtosecond and subpicosecond
pulses these effects do not develop due to a long response
time. Filamentation of laser pulses in atmospheric air can be
observed only if two conditions are simultaneously satised:
ultrashort duration and high power of the radiation.
The mechanisms that stop self-focusing in gases and con-
densed media are different. In optical glass two-photon ab-
sorption stops the growth of intensity in the nonlinear fo-
cus [13]. In gases self-focusing is stopped by defocusing of
laser radiation in the plasma arising from photoionization of
molecules in the nonlinear focus. As a result, the maximum
light intensity in the lament does not exceed 10
14
W/cm
2
for
infrared pulses at 770800 nm [24] and 10
12
W/cm
2
for ul-
traviolet pulses at 248 nm[7].
Nonlinear interaction of laser pulses with neutral molecules
of air and self-produced laser plasma results in strong spatio-
temporal gradients of light-eld intensity and phase. The
68 Applied Physics B Lasers and Optics
intensity peak produced by Kerr self-focusing is followed by
a dynamic ring structure arising fromstrong nonlinear refrac-
tion in the plasma. The rings surrounding the lament con-
verge and diverge alternately. As a result, the energy contained
in the lament changes nonmonotonically with propagation
distance. This effect was called the refocusing phenomenon.
It was studied in [3, 4].
Filamentation is accompanied by the conical emission
wide-band coherent radiation in the visible range. This ra-
diation propagates forward in the narrow cone surrounding
the lament [2, 14]. Experiments on self-focusing in water,
methanol and CCl
4
[5, 15] demonstrated that the conical emis-
sion in the range 500800 nm has the same length of co-
herence as the input laser pulse with central wavelength of
800 nm.
Nowadays wide-band radiation is regarded as a prospec-
tive coherent white-light source for sounding the atmosphere.
The rst experiments with femtosecond terawatt lidar were
performed in Jena [16, 17]. Laser pulses with 100-fs duration,
2-TW peak power and 790-nm central wavelength were sent
to a vertical atmospheric path. The back-scattered signal was
registered from the height of 12 km. The absorption spectra
of oxygen in the range 758772 nm and water vapor in the
range 826836 nmwere obtained at the height of 600800 m.
In recent experiments [18] with terawatt laser pulses, infrared
spectral broadening up to 4.5 microns was registered. This
opens a new possibility for the application of laser-induced
supercontinuum to the registration of pollutants in the atmo-
sphere, because the absorption lines of most pollutants are in
the range 33.7 microns.
Theoretical studies of long-distance propagation in air are
based on the nonlinear Schrdinger equation for the com-
plex amplitude of the electric eld. The propagation equation
includes diffraction, group-velocity dispersion, nonlinear re-
fraction and absorption in the neutral gas and the plasma.
The propagation equation is solved together with the equa-
tions describing transient nonlinear responses of the air and
the plasma produced in the course of photoionization of air
components in a strong laser eld. Usually numerical simu-
lations are applied to the solution of this three-dimensional
nonstationary problem [3, 4, 19, 20]. In the case of the single-
lament regime, a cylindrical geometry of the experimental
setup is used to reduce one spatial coordinate in the trans-
verse direction and to save computational resources. For the
interpretation of the simulation results several models have
been applied: the self-channeling model [2, 6], the moving-
focus model modied by the contribution of the self-produced
laser plasma [3, 4] and the dynamic spatial replenishment
model [20]. Numerical simulations allowed us to recapture
the physical picture of the lamentation and accompanying
effects of conical emission [4, 14] and refocusing [3, 20].
In [21] variational analysis has been applied to the study of
the lamentation phenomenon. The equations for the beam
width and the curvature radius of the laser-beam wavefront
were derived and solved under the assumption of a Gaussian
distribution of spatial intensity in the transverse direction.
Filamentation is a stochastic process. This fact was rst
mentioned in [3] where random deections of the lament
center from the propagation axis were observed in the trans-
verse plane perpendicular to the propagation direction. La
Fontaine et al. [8] reported that not every perturbation in the
beam prole formed earlier in the propagation was developed
into a lament. In the femtosecond lidar experiments [16, 17]
the pulse peak power was several hundred times larger than
the threshold power for self-focusing in air. Therefore a bunch
of laments was created. In the conditions of natural atmo-
spheric turbulence the formation of multiple laments was
random along the propagation distance. In order to regularize
the process of the lament formation Woste et al. [16, 17] used
a focusing lens with a 30-m focal length. In the focal point of
the lens a long light lament was formed from which white-
light conical emission was generated.
Theoretically, formation of laments is the result of spatial
instability of the light eld in the strong optical nonlinear-
ity. In the single-lament regime in a regular (nonstochastic)
medium the instability is located at the point with the highest
intensity, i.e. on the beamaxis. However, in the real conditions
the place of the lament formation depends on the transverse
intensity uctuations caused by limited spatial coherence of
the laser radiation and natural perturbations of the refractive
index in atmospheric air.
The effect of atmospheric turbulence on lamentation of
powerful femtosecond laser pulses in air was numerically
studied [22]. Here the stochastic model of phase screens was
employed to model refractive-index uctuations in air. Kan-
didov et al. [22] showed that laments were created in the
places of random focusing of the radiation. Since in the con-
ditions of self-focusing the light eld is unstable relative to
the local intensity uctuations, the distance between the laser
system output and the place of the lament formation is,
on average, shorter in turbulence. The simulated picture of
the lament wandering in the transverse plane is in qualita-
tive agreement with the one obtained in the experiment. The
Monte Carlo method was used to nd the change of the trans-
verse root-mean-square deviation of the lament from the
propagation axis with distance. Numerical simulations of l-
amentation of a femtosecond pulse with peak power many
times exceeding the threshold power for self-focusing in air
were performed [23]. Dynamics of multiple laments pro-
duced by a pulse with initially regularly positioned intensity
perturbations was studied.
In this paper we present experimental and theoretical stud-
ies of lament wandering caused by natural uctuations of the
refractive index in air. On the basis of statistical processing of
the lament parameters obtained in the experiment and in the
simulations, we develop a theory of lament formation in the
conditions of natural atmospheric turbulence.
2 Experiment
Our laser system consists of a Ti:sapphire os-
cillator followed by a regenerative and two multiple-pass
Ti:sapphire ampliers. The pulse duration is 190 fs (FWHM)
and the central wavelength is = 800 nm. The laser pulse
with 9.6-mm (at e
2
intensity level) beam diameter and en-
ergy of 4.6 mJ propagates in the air of the laboratory building.
The beam starts to self-focus at a distance of 30 m from the
output of the compressor. Pulse peak power is 21 GW, i.e.
3.7 times larger than the threshold power for self-focusing in
air, P
cr
, the value of which was estimated as 6.1 GW[3].
CHIN et al. Filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses in turbulent air 69
To characterize the spatial prole of the lament its en-
ergy is attenuated by consecutive reections from the surface
of two prisms and, after further attenuation by neutral-density
lters, the beamprole is captured by a CCDcamera with a di-
mension of 66 mm
2
(120120 pixels). The output of the
CCDcamera is a two-dimensional matrix F(x, y), the element
of which at each point is proportional to the time-integrated
value of the intensity of the lament at that point. A sample
output of the uence distribution in a single shot is shown
in Fig. 1. A clearly pronounced maximum of the uence dis-
tribution corresponds to the lament-center position at this
propagation distance. From shot to shot the lament-center
position changes randomly in the transverse plane XOY.
Agood t to the uence distribution is a Gaussian function
of the form:
F(x, y) =
A

w
x

w
y
exp
_
2
_
_
x X
c
w
x
_
2
+
_
y Y
c
w
y
_
__
(1)
where X
c
, Y
c
are the coordinates of the lament center and
w
x
, w
y
are the lament radii in x and y directions, respec-
tively. To calculate the values of these parameters we proceed
as follows. First, we integrate the function F(x, y) over the
area y = 60 pixels to nd a function f(x) =
+
_

F(x, y)dy.
At the left-hand and right-hand sides of this area the values
of F(x, y) are negligibly small. After calculating f(x) we t it
to a Gaussian function of the form
A

w
x
/2
exp
_
2
_
xX
c
w
x
_
2
_
,
where A is a constant, and obtain parameters X
c
and w
x
. Re-
peating this procedure, we integrate F(x, y) in the x direction
and then we nd Y
c
and w
y
. The diameter of the randomly
displaced lament, d, is calculated as
d =
_
w
2
x
+w
2
y
. (2)
In Fig. 2 we present the dependence of the diameter of the
laser beam d on the propagation distance, z, that has been
measured from the output of the compressor. Each point cor-
responds to a 20-shot average. The average value of d and its
X (pixels)
Y

(
p
i
x
e
l
s
)
FIGURE 1 Fluence distribution in a single pulse measured by a CCD cam-
era in the plane perpendicular to the propagation direction
propagation distance (m)
D
i
a
m
e
t
e
r

o
f

t
h
e

f
i
l
a
m
e
n
t

d

(
p
i
x
e
l
)
FIGURE 2 The lament diameter d as a function of the propagation dis-
tance. Each point corresponds to a 20-shot average
standard deviation were calculated according to the formulas
of mathematical statistics [24]. At a distance of 30 m (Fig. 2)
the lament diameter rapidly decreases. This indicates the
start of the lamentation process. After the lament is created,
the pulse energy remains localized in the narrow near-axis
area with a diameter of about 1.5 mm. This localization of en-
ergy takes place at least up to 105 m along the propagation
direction. The large standard deviation of the diameter d at
a distance of 30 m demonstrates that the lament formation is
an irregular process. For example, for the data shown in Fig. 2
approximately one-third of all the pulses are far from being
focused since the beamdiameter is too large around 6 mm.
For statistical analysis of the lament parameters we col-
lected 1100 shots at z = 30 m and another 1100 shots at
z = 105 m. For each shot the position of the lament center
X, mm
X, mm X, mm
X, mm
Y
,

m
m
Y
,

m
m
a
b
FIGURE 3 The lament-center positions in the transverse plane at dis-
tances z = 30 m and z = 105 m from the output of the compressor:
a experiment, 1100 laser shots; b simulations, 200 laser shots
70 Applied Physics B Lasers and Optics
(X
c
, Y
c
) and the diameter of the lament at 1/e
2
of uence,
d, were determined. In Fig. 3a we demonstrate the ensemble
of the lament-center positions at these two distances. The
average values of lament displacements in x and y direc-
tions are zero. The density of the lament-center positions is
axially symmetric. From these observations two conclusions
can be derived. First, there is no correlation between the l-
ament displacement in x and y directions. Second, random
displacements of the lament are statistically isotropic in the
transverse plane XOY. Thus, statistical characteristics of the
lament wandering depend only on the displacement of the
lament center R
c
from the origin of the coordinate system
located on the CCDcamera. The distance R
c
is dened as
R
c
=
_
X
2
c
+Y
2
c
. (3)
This result means that random factors that lead to lament
wandering are statistically isotropic in the plane perpendicu-
lar to the propagation direction. Among these factors are per-
turbations of the intensity and the phase caused by limited
spatial coherence of the laser radiation and by refractive-index
uctuations in the propagation path.
In Sect. 3 we develop a model of lamentation of power-
ful femtosecond laser pulses propagating in the conditions of
refractive-index uctuations in turbulent air.
3 Filamentation model
A powerful femtosecond laser pulse propagates in
the conditions of diffraction, group-velocity dispersion, Kerr
self-focusing, plasma production and refractive-index uc-
tuations in atmospheric turbulence. The propagation equa-
tion for the slowly varying amplitude of the electric eld
E(x, y, z, t) is given by
2ik
0
_

z
+
1
v
g

t
_
E =

E k
0

2
k

2
E
t
2
+2k
0
2
n
2
|E|
2
E +2k
0
2
n
pl
(I)E (4)
+2k
0
2
n(x, y, z)E ik
0
E ,
where (x, y, z) describes random uctuations of the re-
fractive index in turbulence and k
0
is a wavenumber. The
ionization-energy loss is described by the coefcient . The
scattering and absorption of the radiation in the atmospheric
aerosol are not taken into account.
Nonlinear change of the refractive index in a strong laser
eld is dened by the Kerr effect and the response of the
laser-induced plasma by n
pl
(I), where I is the laser intensity.
Kerr nonlinearity leads to self-focusing, while plasma causes
defocusing of the radiation. The plasma contribution to the
refractive index is proportional to the electron density. Free
electrons are produced due to multiphoton or tunneling ion-
ization of the air components, mainly from the molecules of
oxygen and nitrogen. Thus, the dependence n
pl
(I) character-
izes the process of plasma production from the oxygen and
nitrogen molecules of air in the course of multiphoton and tun-
neling ionization.
According to recent studies [2, 3, 14, 19, 20] the lamen-
tation of a powerful femtosecond laser pulse consists of the
following processes. The pulse with peak power larger than
the threshold power for self-focusing in air undergoes self-
contraction during the propagation. In the nonlinear focus
located in the central or leading part of the pulse the inten-
sity reaches 10
13
10
14
W/cm
2
and the ionization probability
rapidly increases. The electron density accumulates during
the pulse. The growth of the electron density is described by
kinetic equations where the ionization rate is calculated ac-
cording to models [2527]. For a 800-nm laser wavelength
the ionization rate is roughly proportional to the 8
th
power
of the laser intensity. Therefore, the plasma contribution is
highly nonlinear. The laser-produced plasma leads to the
strong defocusing of the radiation and limits the intensity
growth caused by self-focusing. At the trailing edge of the
pulse (beyond the nonlinear focus) a complex dynamic struc-
ture of aberrational rings surrounding the lament center is
created.
Filamentation in the conditions of atmospheric turbulence
should be described in terms of a 3D + time stochastic equa-
tion with strong nonlinearity. Numerical simulation of this
equation is not available with our computational facilities.
However, the physical mechanism of lamentation allows us
to build up a simpler model of formation and wandering of l-
aments in a randomly inhomogeneous medium. This model
allows us to consider the initial stage of lamentation. By this
initial stage we mean the nonlinear growth of the intensity
up to the ionization threshold and formation of the nonlinear
focus. At this stage of investigation we do not consider com-
plex dynamics of the light eld in the pulse along the whole
propagation path. Below we present the justication of this
assumption.
According to the moving-focus model [3, 4] the most pow-
erful slice of the pulse focuses the closest from the laser sys-
tem output and denes the start of the lament. The slices
at the front of the pulse contain less power and focus further
along the propagation direction. The succession of the nonlin-
ear foci formed by slices fromcentral and leading parts of the
pulse form the lament. Slices at the trailing part of the pulse
defocus in the plasma.
In the physical mechanism of lamentation it is essential
that the ionization starts only after the intensity reaches the
ionization threshold, which is about three orders of magnitude
larger than the peak intensity of the input pulse. In the condi-
tions of our experiment in air the threshold intensity for the
ionization is estimated as 310
13
W/cm
2
while the peak in-
tensity in the input pulse is 310
10
W/cm
2
. Therefore, the
laser-produced plasma does not affect the initial stage of the
lament formation.
The dispersion length for a 190-fs and 800-nm laser
pulse propagating in air is of the order of 1 km. Therefore,
the group-velocity dispersion becomes important only after
a 2030 fs contracted pulse [28] is created in the leading part
of the pulse due to self-steepening. This peak is created in
the nonlinear focus. Earlier in the propagation, group-velocity
dispersion does not affect the lament formation.
Stochastic simulations of powerful femtosecond laser
pulse propagation in the turbulent atmosphere along the whole
propagation path will require taking into account the effect
of the ionization and group-velocity dispersion on the spatio-
temporal transformation of the pulse in the lament.
CHIN et al. Filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses in turbulent air 71
FIGURE 4 Schematic picture of lament wandering in atmospheric turbulence.

S
turbj1
,

S
turbj
,

S
turbj+1
are phase uctuations on the screens that imitate
atmospheric turbulence, z
turb
is the distance between the phase screens, 1, 2 are temporal slices of the pulse and z
nf1
, z
nf2
are the positions of the nonlinear
foci created by the slices 1, 2
At the initial stage of lamentation only Kerr self-focusing
in randomly inhomogeneous media denes the position of the
lament formation in a 3D space. Schematically this process
is shown in Fig. 4. Before the lament is formed, refractive-
index uctuations in air cause phase perturbations in the cen-
tral slice of the pulse. Random small-scale perturbations near
the maximum intensity location can initiate the formation of
the nonlinear focus. The position of this focus is the place of
the lament formation in the transverse plane. The place of
the lament formation in the transverse plane changes ran-
domly fromshot to shot. Phase uctuations, the size of which
is larger than the transverse size of the laser pulse, are re-
sponsible for the wavefront tilt of the slice. The joint effect
of large-scale and small-scale refractive-index uctuations
causes a random deviation of the nonlinear focus and the l-
ament center fromthe propagation axis.
Each slice in the leading edge of the pulse covers its
own distance in randomly inhomogeneous air until it is
self-focused. Therefore, random distortions of the wavefront
(mainly tilts and focusing) formed in the course of this initial
stage of propagation are different in each slice. As a result,
the position of the lament center changes randomly with
increasing propagation distance.
According to our considerations the initial stage of the l-
ament formation can be described by the following equation:
2ik
0
_

z
+
1
v
g

t
_
E =

E +2k
0
2
n
2
|E|
2
E
+2k
0
2
n(x, y, z)E (5)
The model described by (5) does not take into account iner-
tial response of the Kerr nonlinearity [19, 20], since the lat-
ter does not inuence the location of the nonlinear focus in
space. The coefcient n
2
is chosen to be 1, 5510
19
cm
2
/W.
The corresponding critical power for self-focusing is P
cr
=
6.110
19
W[3].
Statistical characteristics of a three-dimensional eld of
refractive-index uctuations (x, y, z) are given by the model
of atmospheric turbulence. For subpicosecond laser pulses
the eld (x, y, z) may be regarded as stationary. Statistical
isotropy of the lament-center wandering (Fig. 3a) allows us
to assume that the experiment was performed in the conditions
of the developed turbulence, which obeys the Kolmogorov
11/3 law [29]. To describe a wide range of refractive-index
uctuations we use the von Karman spectrum:

n
() =0, 033C
n
2
(
2
+
0
2
)
11/6
exp{
2
/
m
2
} (6)
where C
n
2
is a structure constant of atmospheric turbulence,
index n shows that the values
n
and C
n
2
refer to the refractive
index n. Parameters
0
and
m
in (6) are given by:

0
=2/L
0
and
m
=5.92/l
0
(7)
where L
0
and l
0
are outer and inner scales of turbulence,
respectively. The direct measurement of atmospheric turbu-
lence parameters C
n
2
, L
0
and l
0
has not been performed in
the framework of our experiment. Therefore, to nd the quan-
titative values of these parameters we will use the estimates
from[30]. If the height of the atmospheric path is H =12 m
then the outer scale of turbulence, calculated fromthe expres-
sion L
0
=0.4 H, is L
0
1 m. The inner scale of turbulence is
l
0
=1 mm. The structure constant C
n
2
, which shows the inten-
sity of atmospheric uctuations, is a free parameter. We varied
its value in the range C
n
2
=510
13
1.510
14
cm
2/3
in
order to t the experimental results.
The initial distribution of the electric eld E(x, y, z =0, t)
is close to Gaussian in space and time [2, 3]. For coherent ra-
diation the eld E(x, y, z =0, t) is given by
E(x, y, z =0, t) = E
0
exp
_

x
2
+y
2
2a
2
0
_
exp
_

t
2
2
0
2
_
(8)
where a
0
is the beam radius and 2
0
is the pulse duration. The
peak power P
0
in the pulse exceeds the critical power for self-
focusing P
cr
:
P
0
> P
cr
, P
0
=a
0
2
I
0
, I
0
=
cn
8
|E
0
|
2
, (9)
where c is the speed of light. In this formulation the problemof
lamentation in the turbulent atmosphere is reduced to the cal-
culation of the nonlinear focus position in (x, y, z) space for
the successive innitely thin slices of the pulse. The nonlinear
focus position of the central slice of the pulse is the beginning
of the lament, and the nonlinear focus position of the slice
with P P
cr
is the end of the lament. By the nonlinear focus
72 Applied Physics B Lasers and Optics
position of any slice of the pulse we mean the point in (x, y, z)
space at which the intensity reaches the ionization threshold.
The solution to (5) for a random realization of refractive-
index uctuations (x, y, z) corresponds to the experimental
measurements performed for one laser shot. A set of solu-
tions to (5) obtained for statistically independent realizations
of refractive-index uctuations (x, y, z) forms an ensemble
that we used to calculate statistical characteristics of the la-
ment in turbulent air.
4 Numerical simulation technique
Numerical simulations of (5) and (8) are performed
on the basis of the phase-screen model [31]. The calculations
are performed on an (x, y, z) grid.
In the simulations a randomly inhomogeneous medium
is represented by a chain of phase screens located along the
propagation axis. This chain made up of a nite number of
scattering screens reproduces adequately the properties of
a continuous medium, provided that the distance between the
screens z is small compared with the characteristic scales of
the eld variation along the propagation coordinate z. These
scales include the length of nonlinearity L
nl
, the diffraction
length L
d
and the length of turbulence L
turb
[31]:
z min{L
ln
, L
d
, L
turb
} . (10)
The length of nonlinearity is dened as a distance along
which the maximum phase growth due to self-focusing
nl
=
n
2
k
0
L
nl
max{|E|
2
} does not exceed 1 rad. Then
L
nl
=(n
2
k
0
max{|E
2
|})
1
. (11)
The length of turbulence L
turb
is dened as a distance
along which the mean-square deviation of the phase due to
refractive-index uctuations does not exceed 1 rad. For the
von Karman model of atmospheric turbulence the length of
turbulence is given by
L
turb
=
_
2, 4
2
k
0
2
0, 033C
2
n
_
2
L
0
_
5/3
_
1
, (12)
The diffraction length L
d
is given by the expression L
d
=
k
0
a(z)
2
. The value a(z) coincides with the initial beam radius
a
0
at z = 0. Through the value a(z) for z > 0 we denote the
spatial scale of the nonlinear focal region in the beam cross
section.
In the course of Kerr self-focusing the intensity increases
sharply in the region where a nonlinear focus is formed. Sim-
ultaneously, the lengths L
nl
and L
d
decrease. In order to sat-
isfy the inequality (10) we decreased the interval between the
phase screens as the plane of the nonlinear focus formation
was approached. Since the simulation of phase screens that
adequately reproduce atmospheric turbulence requires a lot
of calculations we used two systems of phase screens. The
rst system imitates random phase uctuations

S
turb
(x, y, z)
caused by refractive-index perturbations in the atmosphere. In
this system of phase screens the turbulent phase screens are
placed equidistantly along the propagation direction with the
interval z
turb
. The interval z
turb
is selected from both the
inequality (10) and the condition governing the applicability
of the -correlated phase screens for the turbulent atmosphere
given by
L
0
z
turb
min{L
turb
, L
d
} . (13)
Here L
0
is the outer scale of atmospheric turbulence dened
earlier.
The second system of phase screens reproduces the non-
linear phase growth
nl
(x, y, z) arising due to self-focusing.
The distance z
nl
between nonlinear phase screens de-
creases with increasing intensity in accordance with the con-
ditions (10), (11). In the initial stage of propagation, where
the nonlinear phase growth is small and z
nl
>z
turb
, non-
linear phase screens are located in the same plane as the
turbulent phase screens.
Between both nonlinear and turbulent phase screens
the light eld undergoes only linear diffraction.
In order to obtain a path of the nonlinear focus from one
laser shot, we formed the chain of phase screens to simulate
the atmospheric turbulence over the entire length of the la-
ment. Then we considered the self-focusing of the succession
of pulse slices passing through the same chain of the turbu-
lent phase screens. The position of the nonlinear focus for
a certain slice was dened as a point in (x, y, z) space, where
the slice intensity reaches the ionization threshold. A set of
such points calculated for all slices of the pulse, from the
central slice at t =0 to the slices in the leading front of the
pulse, creates the trajectory of the lament for one laser shot.
Statistical processing of the ensemble of such trajectories cal-
culated for statistically independent chains of phase screens
allows us to nd the average distance from the output of the
compressor to the beginning of the lament and the variance
of the transverse deviation of the lament in the turbulent
atmosphere.
For the simulation of the turbulent phase screens we
employ the modied method of subharmonics [3234]. This
method increases essentially the range of spatial scales of
randomphase uctuations reproduced on the grid. As demon-
strated in [35], the modied method of subharmonics with
four iterations of phase-screen generation makes it possible
to obtain a random eld of phase uctuations (6), the outer
scale L
0
of which is two orders of magnitude larger than the
transverse size of the grid in the plane XOY.
In the simulations of lamentation in turbulence we used
a square grid (512512) with the step h = 0.08 mm in the
transverse section. This grid reproduces adequately phase
uctuations with the spatial scale ranging from L
0
= 1 m
to l
0
= 1 mm. The distance between the turbulent phase
screens was z
turb
= 1 m. The distance between the non-
linear phase screens was decreased to z
nl
= 1 cm as we
approached the nonlinear focus. The diffraction length was
L
d
(z = 0) 100 m for the input beam and L
d
(z = z
f
) =
2.5 cmfor the beam near the start of the lament.
5 Numerical simulation results
Spatial distributions of the light eld obtained from
the numerical solution of the stochastic equation (5) demon-
strate a random process of the nonlinear focus formation in
CHIN et al. Filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses in turbulent air 73
FIGURE 5 Spatial intensity
distribution in the slice with
8.5-GW power (P = 1.4P
cr
)
at several distances from the
output of the compressor. The
structure constant of atmo-
spheric turbulence is C
n
2
=
1.510
14
cm
2/3
, the outer
scale L
0
= 1 m and the inner
scale l
0
=1 mm. Intensity dis-
tribution at each distance is
normalized to the maximum
intensity I
max
at this distance.
At z = 20 m I
max
= 1.4I
0
,
at z = 40 m I
max
= 2.5I
0
, at
z =60 m I
max
= 3.6I
0
, at z =
80 m I
max
= 7.3I
0
, at z =
90 m I
max
= 16.2I
0
and at
z = 100 m I
max
= 554I
0
. Here
I
0
= 310
10
W/cm
2
is the
maximum intensity at z =0
the course of laser pulse lamentation in the turbulent atmo-
sphere. Figure 5 shows the intensity distribution in the slice
with P = 8.5 GW= 1.4P
cr
at several distances z from the
output of the compressor. In air the turbulent lenses induce
distortions in the initially smooth beam prole. The strongest
random focusing in the paraxial region becomes the nucleus
of a nonlinear focus. At the beginning of propagation the in-
tensity growth in the vicinity of the nucleus for the nonlinear
focus is relatively slow. Near the distance of the nonlinear fo-
cus formation the intensity growth is very fast. One can see
that in this random shot the nonlinear focus is displaced from
the center of the input beam. The intensity in the nonlinear fo-
cus is much higher than the maximumvalues of intensity in all
FIGURE 6 Trajectories of the lament center in the plane perpendicular to
the propagation direction. The solid curve tracks the lament-center positions
for the pulse. The random eld n(x, y, z) is the same that was used to cal-
culate the spatial intensity distribution shown in Fig. 5. The dashed curve is
obtained for another realization of the random eld n(x, y, z)
the other slices of the pulse that do not focus at this distance z.
Therefore, the position of the nonlinear focus nearly coincides
with the maximum of the uence at the same distance z. As
a result, the lament center, dened as the position of the max-
imum of the uence, is randomly displaced in the transverse
section of the pulse.
In the simulations we can follow the displacements of the
lament center for a single pulse. For this purpose we cal-
culated the nonlinear focus position for a succession of the
pulse slices starting from the central slice towards the slices
in the leading front of the pulse. The chain of the turbulent
phase screens was the same for each slice. Figure 6 shows
two trajectories of the nonlinear foci (and, consequently, the
lament center) in the transverse plane XOY. The trajecto-
ries are obtained for two different realizations of the random
eld (x, y, z) that describes refractive-index uctuations in
the atmosphere. Two randomrealizations of the eld(x, y, z)
correspond to the propagation of two pulses in the labora-
tory experiment. Figure 6 demonstrates that for the pulses
with 21-GW peak power the lament starts at z =2628 m.
This is in agreement with experimental data shown in Fig. 2.
With increasing propagation distance the transverse deec-
tion of the lament-center position from the position of the
input beam center increases. See, for example, the trajectory
(solid curve) in Fig. 6 that is obtained for the same randomre-
alization of refractive-index uctuations as a set of intensity
distributions in Fig. 5. At a distance z =100 m the nonlinear
focus position is shifted by 1.3 mm along the x-axis and by
0.5 mm along the y-axis (compare Figs. 5 and 6). The sec-
ond trajectory in Fig. 6 (dashed curve) is obtained for another
realization of the randomeld (x, y, z). At z =100 mthe l-
ament center is shifted down and to the left from the input
beam center.
6 Statistical processing of experimental and
numerical simulation results
For statistical analysis of simulation results we
have numerically solved equation (5) with 200 statistically
independent chains of random phase screens. This corres-
74 Applied Physics B Lasers and Optics
FIGURE 7 The normalized bar charts for the lament-center displacements
R at distances z = 30 m and z =105 m from the output of the compressor:
solid curve corresponds to the experiment (1100 shots) and dashed curve to
the simulations (200 shots)
ponds to 200 laser shots in the experiment. The lament-
center positions in simulations were measured at z = 30 m
and z = 105 m as was done in the experiment. The value of
the structure constant C
n
2
was a tting parameter in the sim-
ulations. The lament-center positions were calculated for
several series of 200 shots and for each series we used its
own C
n
2
constant in order to nd the best t to the observed
data.
Figure 3b shows the simulated lament-center positions
for C
n
2
= 1, 510
14
cm
2/3
. There is an obvious qualita-
tive agreement between the simulated and experimentally ob-
tained lament-center positions (compare Figs. 3a and 3b).
For the quantitative analysis of the results we have plotted
bar charts for the samples of experimental {R
lab
} and simu-
lated {R
comp
} values for the lament-center displacements.
The sample size in the experiment is N
lab
=1100 laser shots
and in the simulations N
comp
= 200 laser shots. Figure 7
shows the normalized bar charts P
lab
(R
m
) and P
comp
(R
m
),
where m is the number of the interval. The area of each bar
chart is equal to unity. The sample size N
comp
in the simula-
tions is much less than the sample size N
lab
in the experiment.
Therefore, in order to obtain a valid estimate of the probability
P
comp
(R
m
), the width of the intervals in the bar chart plotted
fromthe simulated data was chosen to be larger than the width
of the intervals in the bar chart plotted from the experimen-
tal data. The empirical distribution functions of the lament-
center displacements corresponding to these bar charts are
Propagation distance Experiment, Numerical simulations, 200 shots
1100 laser shots C
n
2
=1, 510
14
cm
2/3
C
n
2
=310
14
cm
2/3
30 m 0.4660.033 mm 0.3150.022 mm 0.5100.028 mm
105 m 1.3380.033 mm 1.5920.069 mm 2.0800.172 mm
TABLE 1 The absolute values of w=
1
M
M

m=1
w
m
and
w
=
_
1
M1
M

m=1
(w
m
w)
2
_1/2
obtained from statistical processing of experimental and numerical
data. The values
w
and w are shown in the form w
w
given by:

lab/comp
(R
m
) =
m

i=1
P
lab/comp
(R
i
) (14)
The distance of the lament center R
c
=
_
X
c
2
+Y
c
2
from
the origin of the coordinate system XOY depends on the dis-
tances X
c
and Y
c
, which are statistically independent. Dis-
placements X
c
and Y
c
are due to uncorrelated uctuations of
the refractive index in air on the path of the pulse propaga-
tion and, consequently, they obey the normal-distribution law.
Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the lament-center
displacements R
c
obey the Rayleigh-distribution law:
(R
c
) =1exp
_

_
R
c
w
_
2
_
, (15)
where wis the parameter that characterizes the mean value of
the lament-center displacements. The normalized probabil-
ity function for the Rayleigh distribution has the form:
P(R
c
) =
2R
c
w
2
exp
_

_
R
c
w
_
2
_
(16)
Experimentally obtained and simulated bar charts P
lab
(R
m
)
and P
comp
(R
m
) correspond to the Rayleigh probability func-
tion (16) with the parameters w
lab
and w
comp
, respectively. The
parameters w
lab
and w
comp
are calculated as follows. For an
interval m parameter w
m
can be expressed using (14), (15):
w
m
=
R
m

ln(1(R
m
))
, m =1, 2, . . . M , (17)
where M is the number of intervals in the bar chart.
The mean value of w and its root-mean-square deviation
are given by:
w =
1
M
M

m=1
w
m

w
=
_
1
M1
M

m=1
(w
m
w)
2
_
1/2
. (18)
The absolute values of w and
w
obtained from statistical
processing of experimental and numerical data are shown in
Table 1.
The comparison of the values of w and
w
shows that the
structure constant of turbulence C
n
2
= 1, 510
14
cm
2/3
better corresponds to the experimental conditions than the
structure constant C
n
2
=310
14
cm
2/3
. However, for z =
30 m the parameter w
comp
calculated with C
n
2
=
1, 510
14
cm
2/3
is less than w
lab
. At the same time for
CHIN et al. Filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses in turbulent air 75
FIGURE 8 The distribution function of the
lament-center displacements (R) in the
probability scale of the Rayleigh law with pa-
rameter w
lab
: solid curve corresponds to the
experiment (1100 shots) and dashed curve to
the simulations (200 shots)
z =105 mthe value of the parameter w
comp
is larger than w
lab
.
The reason for this discrepancy may be the nite spatial coher-
ence of the laser pulse that has not been taken into account in
the simulations. Random uctuations in the laser beam may
be responsible for essential deections of the lament center
at the initial stage of propagation, where the contribution of
turbulence to the nonlinear focus formation is not very large.
To analyze the applicability of the Rayleigh law to the
description of random displacements of the lament center,
let us plot the distribution function (R
m
) in the Rayleigh
probability scale. If we dene the probability scale from the
Rayleigh distribution with the parameter w
lab
then the ana-
lytical dependence for the distribution function (15) will be
plotted as a straight line with an angle of 45 degrees between
this straight line and each of the coordinate axes (Fig. 8). The
values of the empirical distribution function
lab
(R
m
) calcu-
lated for m intervals are shown by dots. The analytical depen-
dence of the Rayleigh-distribution function on the parameter
w
lab
ts the distribution function obtained from the experi-
mental data very well. In this probability scale the straight line
calculated for the distribution function
comp
(R
m
) with the pa-
rameter w
comp
makes an angle with the analytical dependence
(R) with the parameter w
lab
. This is the consequence of the
discrepancy between the Rayleigh parameters w
comp
and w
lab
obtained fromthe simulations and fromthe experiment.
The distribution functions
lab
(R
m
) and
comp
(R
m
) plot-
ted in the Rayleigh probability scale t the straight lines. This
proves the validity of our assumption that the lament-center
displacements obey the Rayleigh-distribution law.
7 Conclusions
We presented the results of an experimental and
theoretical study of lament wandering in the propagation of
powerful femtosecond laser pulses in a randomly inhomoge-
neous medium.
We have experimentally obtained the ensemble of lament-
center displacements in the plane perpendicular to the propa-
gation direction. The observed picture of lament displace-
ments obtained for 1100 laser shots proves the isotropic
character of random perturbations that cause these displace-
ments. For the perturbations associated with refractive-index
uctuations in air the isotropic character of the perturba-
tions corresponds to the Kolmogorov atmospheric turbulence.
Statistical processing of experimental data shows that the
distribution function of lament-center displacements obeys
the Rayleigh law. The parameter of the Rayleigh distribu-
tion characterizes the average value of displacements and
increases with lament length up to 1.5 mmat z =100 m.
We have developed a model of lament formation and
wandering in the course of propagation of a powerful fem-
tosecond laser pulse through atmospheric turbulence. In this
model the lament wandering is associated with refractive-
index uctuations in air. These uctuations disturb the wave-
front of the laser radiation and cause random formation and
displacements of the lament. For numerical simulations of
a femtosecond pulse self-focusing in atmospheric turbulence
we have developed the phase-screen model that describes both
turbulent and nonlinear perturbations of the wavefront of the
laser radiation. The developed model allows us to simulate the
initial stage of the powerful femtosecond laser pulse propaga-
tion in atmospheric turbulence.
Using the Monte Carlo method and the Kolmogorov
model of atmospheric turbulence we have found that the simu-
lated lament displacements as well as experimentally ob-
tained lament displacements obey the Rayleigh-distribution
law. The parameter of the Rayleigh distribution calculated
in the simulations is close to the one obtained from the ex-
perimental data. The discrepancy can be associated with the
limited spatial coherence and random angular deections of
the laser radiation. The effect of these factors on the lament
wandering in the atmosphere demands further study.
Further study of stochastic lamentation, including mul-
tilamentation and white-light generation, demands a more
advanced model in order to perform the simulations of the
pulse transformation along the whole propagation path in the
turbulent atmosphere. This model should take into account the
effect of the ionization and group-velocity dispersion on the
spatio-temporal evolution of the pulse in the lament.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors thank K.Yu. Andrianov
for statistical processing of simulation results. This work was supported by
the Russian Fund of Fundamental Research (Grant No. 00-02-17 497).
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