Field-free molecular alignment control of filamentation

Abstract

With an approach of controlling the nonlinearity of medium rather than the light field, the effect of field-free molecular alignment on filamentation and resulting white-light generation is studied. This is done by measuring the rotational wavepacket evolution of nitrogen molecules after passing of a femtosecond laser pump pulse by observing the nonlinear propagation dynamics of a variably delayed filament-producing probe pulse.