Non-self-sustained electric discharge and electric breakdown were triggered and guided by a train of picosecond UV pulses overlapped with a long free-running UV pulse of a hybrid Ti:Sapphire-KrF laser facility. Photocurrent sustained by this train is two orders of magnitude higher, and electric breakdown distance is twice longer than those for the discharge triggered by the long UV pulse only.Plasma channels produced by laser radiation in atmospheric air or some other gases are of great interest for many fundamental problems and technical applications. There are triggering and diverting of lightning [1,2], directing of microwave radiation to overcome its original divergence [3,4], laser-driven acceleration and guiding of electrons [5] among them.In contrast to early experiments with CO 2 laser pulses of microsecond length [6], where opacity of dense plasma produced via avalanche ionization limited the length and continuity of the channel, approaches based on the use of UV [1,2,7,8] or femtosecond [9,10] laser pulses can produce long-distance partially ionized tracks in air (or other gas) due to multiphoton ionization either with or without filamentation of radiation. Since primary photoelectrons are quickly recombined with positive ions and attached to the molecular oxygen (during the period of time ~10-50 ns), additional influence of longer laser pulse is anticipated to keep the electron density for much longer time [1]. There are several papers [11][12][13] in which combination of single fs and single ns pulses resulted in plasma revival and improved triggering and guiding electric discharges. However, they have dealt not with UV pulses but with near IR fs and visible or near IR-ns pulses. Application of a long train of ultrashort UV laser pulses or combination of such a train with a long UV pulse seems to be the most attractive for creation and further supporting of plasma channels [14]. In this paper we demonstrate that non-self-sustained electric discharge and electric breakdown are triggered and guided by a train of picosecond UV pulses overlapped with a long free-running

Experiments at the GARPUN KrF laser facility and 2D simulations using the NUTCY code were performed to study the irradiation of metal and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) targets by 100 ns UV pulses at intensities up to 5 × 1012 W cm−2. In both targets, a deep crater of length 1 mm was produced owing to the 2D geometry of the supersonic propagation of the ablation front in condensed matter that was pushed sideways by a conical shock wave. Small-scale filamentation of the laser beam caused by thermal self-focusing of radiation in the crater-confined plasma was evidenced by the presence of a microcrater relief on the bottom of the main crater. In translucent PMMA, with a penetration depth for UV light of several hundred micrometers, a long narrow channel of length 1 mm and diameter 30 μm was observed emerging from the crater vertex. Similar channels with a length-to-diameter aspect ratio of ∼1000 were produced by a repeated-pulse KrF laser in PMMA and fused silica glass at an intensity of ∼109 W cm−2. This channel formation is attributed to the effects of radiation self-focusing in the plasma and Kerr self-focusing in a partially transparent target material after shallow-angle reflection by the crater wall. Experimental modeling of the initial stage of inertial confinement fusion-scale direct-drive KrF laser interaction with subcritical coronal plasmas from spherical and cone-type targets using crater-confined plasmas seems to be feasible with increased laser intensity above 1014 W cm−2.

A new regime of the sliding-mode propagation of microwave radiation in plasma waveguides in atmospheric air is studied both experimentally and theoretically. The mechanisms of air photoionization and relaxation under propagation of 25-ns pulses of KrF laser are investigated. It is shown that a tubular plasma waveguide of large radius (much larger than wavelength of the microwave signal) can be produced in the photoionization of air molecules by 248-nm radiation of KrF-laser. We experimentally demonstrate the laser-enhanced transfer of 38-GHz microwave signal to a distance of at least 60 m. The mechanism of the transfer is determined by total internal reflection of the signal on the optically less dense wall of the plasma waveguide. Analytical and numerical simulations performed for various waveguide radii and microwave radiation wavelengths show that the propagation length increases with decrease in the wavelength reaching a few kilometers for submillimeter waves. Medium-size KrF laser facility with about 400-J energy in a train of picosecond pulses is suggested for the directed transfer of microwave radiation to 1-km distance.

No abstract

Multiphoton ionization mechanisms and ionization rates of atmospheric air and constituent gases are studied at the 248-nm KrF laser wavelength within a laser pulse intensity range of 108–1013 W/cm2 using both long 25-ns and short 160-fs pulses. We have experimentally shown that it is the photoionization of water vapor naturally contained in atmospheric air that acts as the dominant process of air ionization. (2 + 1) Resonance-Enhanced Multiphoton Ionization (REMPI) occurs through 2-photon resonant excitation of water molecules, which results in a quadratic dependence of electron density on laser intensity at lower laser intensities of 108–1010 W/cm2 in the long pulse and in a cubic dependence at higher intensities of 1010–1013 W/cm2 in the short pulse. Direct 3-photon ionization and (3 + 1) REMPI take place in pure O2 and N2, respectively, and their contributions to air ionization are in the ratio of 5:3. The total ionization rate of O2 and N2 in atmospheric air is about an order of magnitude less than that of water vapor. Relevant ionization coefficients (effective multiphoton ionization cross sections) have been measured and that for the H2O molecule is more than 2–3 orders of magnitude larger than the others.