Engineered Laser Filaments in Air for Defense Stand-Off Sensing and Interaction Applications

Abstract

Abstract : Previous research into the generation of non-diffracting beams was extended into the filamentation regime. Helical beams, previously developed as a proof of concept demonstrating the use of Bessel beam superposition to create complex beam arrays, were used in the formation of filaments. The resulting filaments mimicked the double helix structure of the helical beams used in their formation, demonstrated that non-diffracting beams can be used to control the formation of complex filament arrays. Research into non-diffracting beams has also been extended into other geometries, and the conditions for the formation of arbitrarily large rectangular arrays of nondiffracting beams have been established and tested using numerical simulation. Future research will involve generating these rectangular arrays in the laboratory, first as non-diffracting beams and then as filaments, as well as increased the quality and propagation range of helical filaments.