Nature of spatiotemporal light bullets in bulk Kerr media

Majus, D., Tamošauskas, G., Gražulevičiūtė, I., Garejev, N., Lotti, A., Couairon, A., Faccio, D. and Dubietis, A. (2014) Nature of spatiotemporal light bullets in bulk Kerr media. Physical Review Letters, 112(19), 193901. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.193901) (PMID:24877940)

Abstract

We present a detailed experimental investigation which uncovers the nature of light bullets generated from self-focusing in a bulk dielectric medium with Kerr nonlinearity in the anomalous group velocity dispersion regime. By high dynamic range measurements of three-dimensional intensity profiles, we demonstrate that the light bullets consist of a sharply localized high-intensity core, which carries the self-compressed pulse and contains approximately 25% of the total energy, and a ring-shaped spatiotemporal periphery. Subdiffractive propagation along with dispersive broadening of the light bullets in free space after they exit the nonlinear medium indicate a strong space-time coupling within the bullet. This finding is confirmed by measurements of a spatiotemporal energy density flux that exhibits the same features as a stationary, polychromatic Bessel beam, thus highlighting the nature of the light bullets.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Faccio, Professor Daniele
• Authors: Majus, D., Tamošauskas, G., Gražulevičiūtė, I., Garejev, N., Lotti, A., Couairon, A., Faccio, D., and Dubietis, A.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Physical Review Letters
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• ISSN (Online): 1079-7114