The Physics of Intense Femtosecond Laser Filamentation

When it powerful femtosecond laser pulse propagates in a transparent optical medium, be it a gas or a condensed medium, the pulse will self-focus into a series of self-foci, giving rise to the perception of a filament. This universal nonlinear propagation phenomenon is currently an interesting research topic at the forefront of applied physics and attracts more and more people into this field. In this chapter some fundamental physical concepts underlying femtosecond laser filamentation are discussed. These include slice-by-slice self-focusing, intensity clamping, self-transformation into a white light laser pulse (supercontinuum generation), background reservoir and multiple filamentation competition. Some important potential applications are also briefly mentioned.