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Femtosecond Laser Filaments for Use in Sub-Diffraction-Limited Imaging and Remote Sensing
Published on: April 25, 2019
Underwater acoustic wave generation by filamentation of terawatt ultrashort laser pulses
Vytautas Jukna1, Amélie Jarnac1, Carles Milián2
1LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris Saclay, F-91762 Palaiseau cedex, France.
Abstract:
Acoustic signals generated by filamentation of ultrashort terawatt laser pulses in water are characterized experimentally. Measurements reveal a strong influence of input pulse duration on the shape and intensity of the acoustic wave. Numerical simulations of the laser pulse nonlinear propagation and the subsequent water hydrodynamics and acoustic wave generation show that the strong acoustic emission is related to the mechanism of superfilamention in water. The elongated shape of the plasma volume where energy is deposited drives the far-field profile of the acoustic signal, which takes the form of a radially directed pressure wave with a single oscillation and a very broad spectrum.
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