The impact of the varied nonlinear refractive index of higher-order Kerr effect on the laser pulse's propagation

Abstract

The higher-order Kerr effect plays an important role in the propagation of an intense femtosecond laser pulse in the air. We investigate the impact of the varied nonlinear refractive index on the femtosecond laser pulse's propagation. Simulation results show that the evolution of the pulse is very sensitive to these nonlinear refractive index, which implies that the uncertainty of the nonlinear refractive index should be taken into account of when we study the pulse's propagation.