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We demonstrate for the first time the possibility to generate long plasma channels up to a distance of 1 km, using the terawatt femtosecond T&T laser facility. The plasma density was optimized by adjusting the chirp, the focusing and beam diameter. The interaction of filaments with transparent and opaque targets was studied.

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International audienceThe influence of air turbulence on femtosecond laser filamentation is studied experimentally and numerically for laser powers of a few critical powers. Air turbulence in the path of the beam prior to filamentation induces a large pointing and formation instability attributed to an increase of the self-focusing distance and higher modulational instability in the presence of turbulence. By contrast, previously formed filaments are robust both in terms of beam pointing accuracy and survival when crossing turbulent air