Curved plasma channels: Kerr lens and Airy prism

Abstract

We analytically calculate the transverse energy fluxes that would be respectively induced in high-power Airy beams by the Kerr self-focusing and the Airy profile itself if they were the only active process. Under experimental conditions representative of laser filamentation experiments of high-power ultrashort laser pulses in air and condensed media, the Kerr lens induces transverse energy fluxes much larger than the Airy “prism” at the main peak. As a consequence, the curved plasma channels in Airy beams are not only a plasma spark on a curved focus, but indeed self-guided filaments, and their curved trajectory appears as a perturbation due to the linear Airy propagation regime.

Keywords

• beam trapping
• self-focusing and defocusing
• self-phase modulation
• wavefronts and ray tracing