Regular "Breathing" of Single-Cycle Light Bullets in Mid-IR Filament

Abstract: Experimental and numerical studies of a temporal evolution of a light bullet formed in isotropic LiF by Mid IR femtosecond pulse (2500 to 3250 nm) of power, slightly exceeding the critical power for self-focusing, are presented. For the first time regular oscillations of the light bullet intensity during its propagation in a filament were registered by investigation of induced color centers in LiF. It was revealed that color centers in a single laser pulse filament have a strictly periodic structure with a length of separate sections about 30 mcm, which increases with a laser pulse wavelength decreasing. It was shown that the origin of light bullet modulation is a periodical change of the light field amplitude of an extremely compressed single cycle wave packet in a filament, due to the difference of the wave packet group velocity and the carrier wave phase velocity.