Measurement of the nonlinear refractive index of air constituents at mid-infrared wavelengths

Abstract

We measure the nonlinear refractive index coefficients in N${}_2$, O${}_2$ and Ar from visible through mid-infrared wavelengths (λ= 0.4 - 2.4 μm). The wavelengths investigated correspond to transparency windows in the atmosphere. Good agreement is found with theoretical models of ${\chi }^{(3)}$. Our results are essential for accurately simulating the propagation of ultrashort mid-IR pulses in the atmosphere.

9 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Bright Coherent Ultrahigh Harmonics in the keV X-Ray Regime from Mid-Infrared Femtosecond Lasers
• Ultrashort filaments of light in weakly-ionized, optically-transparent media
• Sensitivity of propagation and energy deposition in femtosecond filamentation to the nonlinear refractive index

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