Audrius Dubietis graduated from Vilnius University in 1989, and was awarded a PhD in 1996. He has been professor in the Department of Quantum Electronics, Laser Research Center, Vilnius University, since 2006. His areas of research areas include nonlinear optics, laser physics, atmospheric phenomena, physics, optics, and astronomy. In 1992, together with G. JonuSauskas and A. Piskarskas, he proposed a method of parametric amplification of phase-modulated light pulses, which is implemented by the most important ultra-powerful laser centers worldwide. He has published more than 90 scientific articles in the peer-reviewed literature.
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Physical picture of supercontinuum generation
Chapter 1. Governing physical effects
1.1. Self-focusing of laser beams
1.2. Self-phase modulation of laser pulses
1.3. Nonlinear absorption and ionization
1.4. Plasma effects
1.4.1. Transition of electrons from the valence to the conduction band1.4.2. Refractive index change
1.4.3. Plasma induced phase modulation
1.4.4. The Drude-Lorentz model
1.5. Intensity clamping
1.6. Chromatic dispersion
1.7. Self-steepening and space-time focusing
1.8. Four wave mixing and phase matching
1.9. Conical emission
Chapter 2. Femtosecond filamentation in solid state media
2.1. Universal features
2.2. Numerical model
2.3. Supercontinuum generation under normal GVD
2.4. Supercontinuum generation under anomalous GVD
2.5. Supercontinuum generation under near zero GVD
2.6. Comparison with supercontinuum generation in a fiber
Part 2. Overview of the experimental results
Chapter 3. General practical considerations
3.1. Materials
3.2. Numerical aperture
3.3. Stability issues
3.4. Focusing-defocusing cycles
3.5. Multiple filamentation
Chapter 4. Experimental results
4.1. Water as prototypical nonlinear medium
4.2. Glasses
4.3. Alkali metal fluorides
4.4. Laser hosts
4.5. Crystals possessing second-order nonlinearity
4.6. Semiconductors
4.7. Other nonlinear media
Chapter 5. New developments
5.1. Power and energy scaling
5.2. Pulse compression
5.3. Supercontinuum generation with picosecond laser pulses
5.4. Supercontinuum generation with non-Gaussian beams
5.5. Control of supercontinuum generation
References