Guiding of sub-100 femtosecond pulses in preformed plasma channels

Abstract

The guiding of 80 fs pulses over a 1 cm distance in a preformed plasma waveguide has been demonstrated. The guided pulses were produced by a Ti:sapphire laser system. The plasma waveguide was created in a neutral gas by using a separate laser system which consists of a 100 ps Nd:YAG oscillator seeding a Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier and two power amplifiers. In order to achieve stable guiding it was necessary to synchronize these two laser systems so that the time jitter between them is substantially less then time scale over which significant changes in the plasma waveguide can occur.