Microwave guiding in air by a cylindrical filament array waveguide

Microwave guiding was demonstrated over 16cm in air using a large diameter hollow plasma waveguide. The waveguide was generated with the 100TW femtosecond laser system at the Advanced Laser Light Source facility. A deformable mirror was used to spatially shape the intense laser pulses in order to generate hundreds of filaments judiciously distributed in a cylindrical shape, creating a cylindrical plasma wall that acts as a microwave waveguide. The microwaves were confined for about 10ns, which corresponds to the free electron plasma wall recombination time. The characteristics of the plasma waveguide and the results of microwave guiding are presented.