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arXiv · 1311.1603

On the interpretation of negative birefringence observed in strong-field optical pump-probe experiments: high-order Kerr and plasma grating effects

G. Karras·P. Béjot·J. Houzet·E. Hertz·F. Billard·B. Lavorel·O. Faucher
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Abstract

The analysis of negative birefringence optically induced in major air components (Loriot et al., [1, 2]) is revisited in light of the recently reported plasma grating-induced phase-shift effect predicted for strong field pump-probe experiments (Wahlstrand and Milchberg, [3]). The nonlinear birefrin- gence induced by a short and intense laser pulse in argon is measured by femtosecond time-resolved polarimetry. The experiments are performed with degenerate colors, where the pump and probe beam share the same spectrum, or with two different colors and non-overlapping spectra. The in- terpretation of the experimental results is substantiated using a numerical 3D+1 model accounting for nonlinear propagation effects, cross-beam geometry of the interacting laser pulses, and detec- tion technique. The model also includes the ionization rate of argon and high-order Kerr indices introduced by Loriot et al. enabling to assess the contribution of both terms to the observed effect. The results show that the ionization-induced phase-shift has a minor contribution compared to the high-order Kerr effect formerly introduced, the latter allowing a reasonably good reproduction of the experimental data for the present conditions.

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G. Karras, P. Béjot, J. Houzet, E. Hertz, F. Billard, B. Lavorel, O. Faucher. 2013-11-07. On the interpretation of negative birefringence observed in strong-field optical pump-probe experiments: high-order Kerr and plasma grating effects. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.88.053424

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