Dynamics of plasma gratings in atomic and molecular gases

Abstract

The decay of the plasma grating formed at the intersection of two femtosecond filaments is measured in several molecular and atomic gases. The grating evolution is ruled by ambipolar diffusion in atomic gases and by a combination of ambipolar diffusion and collision-assisted free electron recombination in molecular gases. Electron diffusion and recombination coefficients are extracted for Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, N2, O2, CO2, and air at 1 bar.