Free-Space Nonlinear Beam Combining Towards Filamentation

Abstract

Multi-filamentation opens new degrees of freedom for manipulating electromagnetic waves in air. However, without control, multiple filament interactions, including attraction, repulsion or fusion often result in formation of complex disordered filament distributions. Moreover, high power beams conventionally used in multi-filament formation experiments often cause significant surface damage. The growing number of applications for laser filaments requires fine control of their formation and propagation. We demonstrate, experimentally and theoretically, that the attraction and fusion of ultrashort beams with initial powers below the critical value enable the eventual formation of a filament downstream. Filament formation is delayed to a predetermined distance in space, avoiding optical damage to external beam optics while still enabling robust filaments with controllable properties as if formed from a single high power beam. This paradigm introduces new opportunities for filament engineering eliminating the need to use high peak power lasers sources.