Ar plasma waveguide produced by a low-intensity femtosecond laser

Abstract

Using the interaction of a low-intensity femtosecond laser pulse (30 fs, 6 x 10(15) Wcm(-2)) with argon cluster jet produced from a slit nozzle, we experimentally probe the formation of a uniform plasma waveguide by the interferogram analysis. The results about evolution of plasma channel demonstrate that it is feasible to produce the plasma waveguide for an fs laser pulse of low-intensity. It takes tens of nanoseconds to form a plasma waveguide. The simulation by one-dimensional Gaussian plasma hydrodynamic expansion model indicates that the temperature of plasma channel is not high under this condition. Thus it takes tens of nanoseconds to form a plasma waveguide. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.