Self-healing femtosecond light filaments
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Updated: Aug 25, 2026

Femtosecond Laser Filaments for Use in Sub-Diffraction-Limited Imaging and Remote Sensing
Published on: April 25, 2019
Miroslav Kolesik1, Jerome V Moloney
1Arizona Center for Mathematical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA. kolesik@acms.arizona.edu
Abstract:
A recent experiment [Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 213 (2003)] indicated that filaments created in femtosecond high-power pulses propagating in air are surprisingly robust when interacting with microscopic water droplets. We present numerical modeling of the dynamics of the filament-droplet interaction. Our simulation results provide further insight into the interplay between the filament's core and the wide transverse pedestal of the pulse. It is shown that the robustness of the filament comes from the transverse low-intensity pedestal that controls the formation of the central hot spot. Implications for penetration of wide, high-power beams through obscurants are discussed.
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