Abstract

Laser filaments are beneficial in long range outdoor applications. An intense ultrashort pulse will propagate nonlinearly through air and experience a balance of self-focusing and defocusing effects to generate a filament consisting of a plasma channel and high-intensity light beam over a long range of propagation. Filaments can propagate several times the Rayleigh distance, allowing the projection of high energy densities in a small spot size over kilometer scale distances. However, filaments are limited by clamped values of their intensity, plasma electron density, plasma lifetime, and spot size. We have previously demonstrated the "stitching" of filaments to extend the plasma lifetime. This was accomplished via our burst mode optical pulse system (BMOPS), which produces a 13 ns burst of pulses separated by an interval shorter than the plasma lifetime at the 10 Hz laser repetition rate, resulting in a higher average power than a single pulse. Stitching temporally separates and precisely spatially overlaps pulses to produce a filament with a lifetime many times that of a filament formed by a single pulse. This enhanced lifetime can improve the performance of many filamentation applications. We have recently implemented BMOPS into MU-HELF, our mobile ultrafast laser sitting on a 1 km range. Here, we present initial results of stitching and spatial confinement of burst mode energy over a 250 m range through turbulent conditions.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2023

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Richardson, Martin

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Optics and Photonics

Department

Optics and Photonics

Degree Program

Optics and Photonics

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0009606; DP0027631

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0027631

Language

English

Release Date

May 2028

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Campus-only Access)

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