Extremely enhanced N₂⁺ lasing in a filamentary plasma grating in ambient air

Cavity-free air lasing offers a promising route towards the realization of atmospheric lasers for various applications such as remote sensing and standoff spectroscopy; however, achieving efficient generation and control of air lasing in ambient air is still a challenge. Here we show the experimental realization of a giant lasing enhancement by three to four orders of magnitude in ambient air for the self-seeded N2+ lasing at 428 nm, assigned to the B²Σu+(ν=0) and X²Σg+(ν=1) emission, by modulating the spatiotemporal overlap of ultrashort near-infrared control-pump pulses in a filamentary plasma grating; meanwhile, the spontaneous emission from the same transition is only enhanced by three to four times. We find that this enhancement is sensitive to the relative polarization and interference time of the two pulses, and reveal that the formation of the plasma grating induces different population variations in the B²Σu+(ν=0) and X²Σg+(ν=1) levels, resulting in an enormous population inversion between the two levels, thereby a higher gain for the giant enhancement of N2+ lasing in ambient air.