Dynamics of tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses in water

Abstract

The dynamics of tightly focused ultrashort (40 fs) pulses manifested in terms of supercontinuum emission (SCE) and cavitation-induced bubbles (CIB) resulting from propagation in water over a wide range of input powers (6 mW–1.8 W) are presented. The effect of linear polarization (LP) and circular polarization (CP) on SCE in different external focal geometries (f/6, f/7.5 and f/10) is investigated and the results are discussed. SCE with higher efficiency and a considerable spectral blue shift is observed under tight focusing conditions (f/6) compared to loose focusing conditions (f/10). At higher input powers, CIB along the axis of propagation are observed to be assisting deeper propagation of these short pulses and enhanced SCE.