Numerical investigation of the self-focusing of broad-bandwidth laser light with applied angular dispersion

Abstract

The self-focusing of phase-modulated broad-bandwidth (BBW) laser light, in which the spectral components are angularly dispersed to produce smoothing of laser nonuniformities, is analyzed. A multifrequency, multidimensional computer code has been developed to simulate the propagation of angularly dispersed BBW light within a nonlinear medium. Earlier work has shown that the self-focusing behavior of phase-modulated BBW light without angular dispersion is insignificantly different from that of monochromatic beams. With the addition of angular dispersion, pure phase modulation cannot be maintained during propagation, and the beam becomes subject to the development of spatial amplitude modulation which moves across the beam in time. Instantaneously, this amplitude modulation will begin to self-focus in a nonlinear medium. However, when examined over one period of the phase modulation, the time-integrated intensity (TII) due to the angularly dispersed BBW beam is consistently smooth, regardless of the amount of propagation modulation or self-focusing growth present in the instantaneous profile. Similarly, the angular dispersion will produce a time-dependent deflection of any amplitude modulation on the beam produced by laser defects. Because the focus of the modulation is enlarged due to the deflection, the TII of this amplitude structure is found to be less than that for a monochromatic beam.