Ionization-induced propagation effects of high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses in a neutral gas

Summary form only given. In many applications of high-intensity femtosecond pulses such as plasma particle acceleration, the laser pulse must first propagate through neutral gases, which result in pulse distortions at relatively low intensity. We report experimental results on self-induced effects caused by rapid gas ionization during propagation of 100-fs pulses in a gas jet at relatively low gas densities with equivalent pressure <150 Torr. Our experimental setup is shown. Output of the 10-Hz femtosecond Ti:sapphire CPA system is split by a beam splitter.