Abstract

Powerful ultrashort laser pulses reveal surprising features on the nature of light and matter interactions. Intense optical field modifies the refractive index of the medium through the optical Kerr effect and gives rise to self-focusing, self- and cross-phase modulation, spectral broadening, electron plasma generation, etc. The phenomenon, which couples these effects as a whole, is called femtosecond filamentation [1]. High-power laser beams break-up into multiple filaments (MFs) [2]. This process is governed by the growth of the wave-front perturbations that lead to random filament distribution over a given transverse plane. However, most of the applications require precise filament localization, and high MF pattern reproducibility is of paramount importance.

© 2009 IEEE