New Methodological Aspects of Physics and Applications of Atmospheric Nonlinear Optics

Dear Colleagues,

High-power laser pulses undergo nonlinear propagation in transparent media. This action includes exciting and challenging physics with many applications. The areas of study include intense-field physics, extreme nonlinear optics, nonlinear electromagnetic pulse propagation, quantum optics, and some unknown new physical phenomena. Phenomena like self-focusing, self-guiding, self-reflection, four-wave mixing, self-phase modulation, self-steepening, and pulse splitting have been extensively studied from theoretical and experimental points of view. Still, they have often been restricted to condensed matter, especially glass.

In the early 2000s, when ultrashort laser pulses were produced with intensities as high as 1020 W/cm², highly nonlinear propagation was observed in media such as the atmosphere. Atmospheric propagation is rich and complex. It has long been believed that intense ultra-short laser pulses are not suited for long-range propagation in air. However, experiments using intense infrared (IR) femtosecond pulses show the opposite trend. They open avenues for many atmospheric applications in fields as diverse as lightning control and remote air pollution sensing.

Furthermore, in the early 2000s, a pioneering experiment demonstrated the creation of atmospheric plasma channels using white light. The measurements showed atmospheric propagation at altitudes as high as 12 km. This experiment opened a new field of Lidar investigations. The white light femtosecond Lidar technique is based on the nonlinear propagation of ultra-short and ultra-intense laser pulses in the atmosphere. The dynamical balance between Kerr self-focusing and plasma defocusing produces filaments in the optical media. The long-range propagation of the pulses beyond their first self-focus depends on using subpicosecond laser pulses, which are short enough to avoid the occurrence of avalanche ionization. Filamentation garnered great interest and became a field of intense research activity. Femtosecond filamentation was observed for various laser wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the infrared domain, and pulse durations were observed from several tenths of femtoseconds to several picoseconds.

This Special Issue invites contributions describing the new methodological aspects of physics and the applications of atmospheric nonlinear optics. We encourage authors to share their opinions, knowledge, and achievements. In addition, it is essential to present the impact of the latest disclosures on applications in the field on human activity and include the examples of new measurement methods. All this is to improve our scientific understanding of the subject.

Original research, systematic review, meta-analysis, and model studies related to the theme are welcome.

We very much look forward to your submissions.

Dr. Irit Juwiler
Guest Editor

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