Interaction of femtosecond pulses of a two-harmonic Ti:Sapphire laser with liquid media

Abstract

The interaction of ultrashort laser pulses having wavelengths of 400 and 800 nm with liquid media, including organic solutions, has been experimentally studied. It is shown that transparent drops evaporate and boil (with partial mass ejection in the form of vapor and liquid fragments) in the field of ultrashort light pulse. A large-scale change in the spectrum of laser pulse during its interaction with a water particle is revealed. This change is caused by self-modulation of the light phase due to the Kerr optical nonlinearity of liquid and the formation of plasma. Filamentation in continuous liquid media is analyzed; specifically, the dependences of the number of filaments, the lasing spectrum width, the nonlinear-focusing distance, and the filamentation region diameter on the laser pulse power are measured. It is noted that there is a range of relative powers where the number of filaments very rapidly increases. It is shown that the spectral broadening at filamentation, observed for fixed pulse energy with a change in pulse width, overlaps the entire visible spectral range. This circumstance makes it possible to obtain width-tunable pulses and use them, e.g., in optoacoustic diagnostics of media.