Tight focusing and blue shifting of millijoule femtosecond pulses from a conical axicon amplifier
- 1 November 1988
- journal article
- Published by Optica Publishing Group in Optics Letters
- Vol. 13 (11), 984-986
- https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.13.000984
Abstract
We focus millijoule femtosecond pulses to a spot radius of 2 μm after amplification free of phase-front distortion in a Nd:YAG-pumped conical axicon dye cell. Peak focal intensities reach 1016 W/cm2, creating an intense spark that is caused by air breakdown at the focus. Intensity-dependent blue shifts of the pulse spectrum as large as 11 nm are observed as a result of temporally asymmetric self-phase modulation in the air-breakdown plasma.Keywords
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