corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 98 » Issue 23
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 235002 (2007) [4 pages]

Conical Forward THz Emission from Femtosecond-Laser-Beam Filamentation in Air

Download: PDF (591 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

C. D’Amico, A. Houard, M. Franco, B. Prade, and A. Mysyrowicz*
Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée, ENSTA, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS UMR 7639, Palaiseau, 91761 France

A. Couairon
Centre de Physique Théorique, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, F-91128 Palaiseau, France

V. T. Tikhonchuk
Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, Université Bordeaux 1, CEA, CNRS, UMR 5107, Talence, 33405 France

Received 21 February 2007; published 7 June 2007

See accompanying Physics Focus

We attribute a strong forward directed THz emission from femtosecond laser filaments in air to a transition-Cherenkov emission from the plasma space charge moving behind the ionization front at light velocity. Distant targets can be easily irradiated by this new source of THz radiation.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.235002
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.235002
PACS:
52.38.Hb, 41.60.−m, 42.65.Tg, 52.25.Os

*Electronic address: andre.mysyrowicz@ensta.fr

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >