Effect of a plasma grating on pump-probe experiments near the ionization threshold in gases

Abstract

Calculations are performed of the phase shift caused by the spatial modulation in the plasma density due to interference between a strong pump pulse and a weak probe pulse. It is suggested that a recent experiment [Loriot et al., Opt. Express v. 17, 13429 (2009)] observed an effective birefringence from this plasma grating rather than from the higher-order Kerr effect.

3 pages, 1 figure. Fix typos and correct numbers

References in corpus (5)

• Higher-order Kerr terms allow ionization-free filamentation in gases
• Transition from plasma- to Kerr-driven laser filamentation
• Optical nonlinearity in Ar and N${}_2$ near the ionization threshold
• Effect of a plasma grating on pump-probe experiments near the ionization threshold in gases
• Fermionic light in common optical media

Cited by in corpus (11)

• On the Saturation of the Nonlinear Refractive Index in Atomic Gases
• High-field quantum calculation reveals time-dependent negative Kerr contribution
• Effect of a plasma grating on pump-probe experiments near the ionization threshold in gases
• Effect of two-beam coupling in strong-field optical pump-probe experiments
• Third and fifth harmonics generation by tightly focused femtosecond pulses at 2.2 μm wavelength in air
• Sensitivity of propagation and energy deposition in femtosecond filamentation to the nonlinear refractive index
• Absolute measurement of the ultrafast nonlinear electronic and rovibrational response in H${}_2$ and D${}_2$
• Intrapulse Impact Processes in Dense-Gas Femtosecond Laser Filamentation
• Ultrasolitons: multistability and subcritical power threshold from higher-order Kerr terms
• On the interpretation of negative birefringence observed in strong-field optical pump-probe experiments: high-order Kerr and plasma grating effects
• Modulational instability windows in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation involving higher-order Kerr responses