Abstract
We report on the lasing action of atmospheric air pumped by an 800 nm femtosecond laser pulse with peak power up to 4 TW. Lasing emission at 428 nm increases rapidly over a small range of pump laser power, followed by saturation above . The maximum lasing pulse energy is measured at 2.6 μJ corresponding to an emission power in the MW range, while a maximum conversion efficiency of is measured at moderate pump pulse energy. The optical gain inside the filament plasma is estimated to be in excess of . Lasing emission shows a doughnut profile, reflecting the spatial distribution of the pump-generated white-light continuum that acts as a seed for the lasing. We attribute the pronounced saturation to the defocusing of the seed in the plasma amplifying region and to the saturation of the seed intensity.
© 2014 Optical Society of America
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