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Femtosecond filamentation; high-harmonic generation; nonlinear conical waves; strong field; attosecond science.

Results illustrating the nonlinear dynamics of ultrashort laser pulse filamentation in gases are presented, with particular emphasis on the filament properties useful for developing attosecond light sources. Two aspects of ultrashort pulse filaments are specifically discussed: (i) numerical simulation results on pulse self-compression by filamentation in a gas cell filled with noble gas. Measurements of high harmonics generated by the pulse extracted from the filament allows for the detection of intensity spikes and subcycle pulses generated within the filament. (ii) Simulation results on the spontaneous formation of conical wavepackets during filamentation in gases, which in turn can be used as efficient driving pulses for the generation of high harmonics and isolated attosecond pulses.

A Couairon¹ A Lotti^{1 2} D Faccio³ P Di Trapani² D S Steingrube⁴ E Schulz⁴ T Binhammer⁴ U Morgner⁴ M Kovacev⁴ M B Gaarde⁵

1. Centre de Physique Théorique, École Polytechnique, CNRS, F-91128, Palaiseau, France
2. Department of Physics and Mathematics, Universita dell’Insubria, I-22100 Como, Italy
3. School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland EH14 4AS, UK
4. Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institut für Quantenoptik, Welfengarten 1, D-30167 Hannover, Germany
5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803-4001, USA

Published

August 2014

Early published

11 July 2014