Abstract
Recent works on plasma channels produced during the propagation of ultrashort and intense laser pulses in air demonstrated the guiding of electric discharges along the laser path. However, the short plasma lifetime limits the length of the laser-guided discharge. In this paper, the conductivity and lifetime of long plasma channels produced by ultrashort laser pulses is enhanced efficiently over many orders of magnitude by the electric field of a hybrid AC-DC high-voltage source. The AC electric pulse from a Tesla coil allowed to stimulate and maintain the highly conductive channel during few milliseconds in order to guide a subsequent 500 times more energetic discharge from a 30-kV DC source. This DC discharge was laser-guided over an air gap length of two metres, which is more than two orders of magnitude longer than the expected natural discharge length. Long plasma channel induced by laser pulses and stimulated by an external high-voltage source opens the way for wireless and efficient transportation of energetic current pulses over long air gaps and potentially for guiding lightning.
Highlights
In this paper, we demonstrate the possibility to produce very conductive channels in air, to extend the plasma lifetime by three orders of magnitude and laser-guide the discharge over an atmospheric gap 230 times longer than the natural discharge length of 0.88 cm for a 30-kV DC high-voltage source
These results are obtained by introducing a low energy pulsed electric field from a Tesla coil in parallel to the plasma filaments generated by ultrashort laser pulses
In the case of laser-guiding of the discharge, the plasma channel generated by the laser pulse bypasses the formation processes of coronas and streamers; a leader will form and progress directly along the plasma filaments produced by the laser pulse
Summary
We demonstrate the possibility to produce very conductive channels in air, to extend the plasma lifetime by three orders of magnitude (up to the millisecond scale) and laser-guide the discharge over an atmospheric gap 230 times longer than the natural discharge length of 0.88 cm for a 30-kV DC high-voltage source. These results are obtained by introducing a low energy pulsed electric field from a Tesla coil in parallel to the plasma filaments generated by ultrashort laser pulses. The Tesla coil electric field stimulated the plasma filament produced by the laser pulse and allowed the generation of a very conductive channel along the laser path, guiding the subsequent 30-kV DC discharge up to an atmospheric gap of 200 cm
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