Propagation of laser filaments through an extended turbulent region

Abstract

We show that laser filamentation can be initiated and propagate through strong extended turbulence well above the typical atmospheric values. We suggest that the effect of turbulence on filamentation is characterized by the product of the structure parameter for the refractive index Cn2 and the length L of the turbulence region. Half of the filaments are transmitted for Cn2L⩽4.4×10−10m1∕3. Moreover, the surviving filaments keep their key spectral properties including correlations inside the white-light continuum.