Field-free molecular alignment for probing collisional relaxation dynamics

International audience; We report the experimental study of field-free molecular alignment in CO2 gas mixtures induced by intense femtosecond laser pulses in the presence of collisional processes. We demonstrate that the alignment signals exhibit specific features due to nontrivial collisional propensity rules that tend to preserve the orientation of the rotational angular momentum of the molecules. The analysis is performed with a quantum approach based on the modeling of rotational J- and M-dependent state-to-state transfer rates. The present work paves the way for strong-field spectroscopy of collisional dynamics.

Experimental investigation of the optical Kerr effect at large laser intensity: impact on the propagation of a short and intense laser pulse

Talk given by O. Faucher; International audience

Molecular alignment in CO2 mixtures induced by a short nonresonant intense pulse : effect of collisional relaxation

Higher-order Kerr terms allow ionization-free filamentation in gases

Talk given by J. Kasparian; International audience; Higher-order nonlinear indices, rather than plasma, provide the main defocusing contribution to filamentation in gases at 800 nm. Developing generalized Miller formulae, we discuss the generality of this as a function of the laser wavelength

Observation d'effets Kerr d'ordres élevés (HOKE) dans les gaz

Talk given by O. Faucher; National audience

Higher-order Kerr terms allow ionization-free filamentation in gases

International audience; We show that higher-order nonlinear indices (n4 , n6 , n8 , n10) provide the main defocusing contribution to self-channeling of ultrashort laser pulses in air and Argon at 800 nm, in contrast with the previously accepted mechanism of filamentation where plasma was considered as the dominant defocusing process. Their consideration allows to reproduce experimentally observed intensities and plasma densities in self-guided filaments.

Field-free molecular alignment of CO2 mixtures in presence of collisional relaxation

The present work explores the extension of the concept of short-pulse-induced alignment to dissipative environments within quantum mechanical density matrix formalism (Liouville equation) from the weak to the strong field regime. This is illustrated within the example of the CO2 molecule in mixture with Ar and He, at room temperature, for which a steep decrease of the alignment is observed at moderate pressure because of the collisional relaxation. The field-free alignment is measured by a polarization technique where the degree of alignment is monitored in the time domain by measuring the resulting transient birefringence with a probe pulse Raman induced polarization spectroscopy (RIPS) Co…

Field-free molecular alignment in presence of collisional relaxations

Higher-order Kerr terms allow ionization-free filamentation in gases.

We show that higher-order nonlinear indices ($n_4$, $n_6$, $n_8$, $n_{10}$) provide the main defocusing contribution to self-channeling of ultrashort laser pulses in air and Argon at 800 nm, in contrast with the previously accepted mechanism of filamentation where plasma was considered as the dominant defocusing process. Their consideration allows to reproduce experimentally observed intensities and plasma densities in self-guided filaments.

Dissipation of post-pulse laser-induced alignment of CO2through collisions with Ar

In this paper, laser-induced field-free alignment of CO2 in mixtures with Ar is investigated under dissipative conditions (up to 15 bars) at room temperature. The degree of alignment is temporally monitored by a polarization spectroscopy technique, where a weak probe pulse measures the transient birefringence resulting from the alignment. The data are analyzed with a quantum mechanical density matrix formalism using properly J-dependent and M-dependent state-to-state transfer rates, which was previously successfully tested on pure CO2 and CO2–He mixtures. The same consistency is obtained between experiments and calculations, in particular the decay times of both the transient revivals and t…