This research aims at carrying out experimental, theoretical and numerical studies of the nonlinear propagation of femtosecond non-diffracting laser beams in dielectrics and its application to ultrafast laser ablation at high aspect ratio.
A central element is based on the filamentation regime of femtosecond non-diffracting beams. Exciting results demonstrate that non-diffracting beams allow the generation of plasma channels with unprecedented stability, length and superior control of plasma generation in space that produces long-range plasma channels with constant electronic density.
Recent results obtained in our group at micro- and nano-meter scale have shown a breakthrough application of intense femtosecond non-diffracting beams to laser materials micro/nano-processing. This approach enabled us to obtain, in the single shot regime, the realization of nano-channels (200-800 nm diameter) with unprecedented high aspect ratio (up to 100) and length/diameter control.
Importantly, the invariance property also allows for investigating very precisely light-matter and light plasma interaction.
