Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Mathematisch-Naturwissen­schaft­liche Fakultät - Institut für Physik

Herr PD Dr. Günter Steinmeyer vom Max-Born-Institut, Berlin spricht zum Thema "The Fascinating Physics of Optical Filaments: From Controlled Laser Pulse Compression to Rogue Wave Emergence".

Abstract: Laser beams with peak powers in the multi-gigawatt range experience a catastrophic collapse due to self-focusing in gaseous media. This collapse process is arrested by the onset of plasma formation, and a balance can be obtained that leads to a self-guiding effect along the plasma channel. This process can be exploited in multiple ways, e.g., for self-compression of femtosecond laser pulses to even shorter pulse duration. Further increasing the power, the single filament eventually becomes unstable, and a new highly dynamic regime of multiple parallel plasma strings emerges. In the resulting beam profiles, one can observe rare but highly intense flashes. A statistical investigation reveals extreme value statistics of these events well beyond a Gaussian distribution. Given the similarity of these events to ocean rogue waves, we conducted a systematic comparison with other rogue-wave supporting systems. The results of our study have important implications for the understanding of the ocean rogue wave mystery.

Plakat zum Kolloquium (pdf)