The light filament generated by focusing 50 fs laser pulses with a single pulse energy of 0.83 mJ using a 111 cm focal length lens in air is used to propel micro glass beads. It is found that the propulsion efficiencies at various longitudinal positions of the filament did not follow the filament's plasma distribution along the laser propagation direction. However, the variation of the propulsion distances agrees well with the evolution of the measured ablation rates at different locations along the filament. It hints that it is the ablative material removal that gives the main contribution to the propulsion of the micro beads. Further numerical simulations taking into account both the nonlinear propagation of the femtosecond laser pulse and the ablation dynamics confirm our interpretation.

Date Published: 4 January 2008
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 6839, Nonlinear Optics: Technologies and Applications, 68390A (4 January 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.756323

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6839:
Nonlinear Optics: Technologies and Applications
Yiping Cui; Qihuang Gong; Yuen-Ron Shen, Editor(s)