Study of filamentation threshold in zinc selenide

The possibility of creating filaments with laser wavelengths ranging from 800 nm to 2.4 µm was investigated using an OPA laser system. Zinc Selenide's (ZnSe) unique characteristics - small band gap E(gZnSe)=2.67eV and positive dispersion for this wavelength range - are well suited for filamentation study where multi-photon absorption can be achieved with two to six photons.