Curved plasma channels: Kerr lens and Airy prism

We analytically calculate the transverse energy fluxes that would be respectively induced in high-power Airy beams by the Kerr selffocusing and the Airy profile itself if they were the only active process. Under experimental conditions representative of laser filamentation experiments of high-power ultrashort laser pulses in air and condensed media, the Kerr lens induces transverse energy fluxes much larger than the Airy prism at the main peak. As a consequence, the curved plasma channels in Airy beams are not only a plasma spark on a curved focus, but indeed self-guided filaments, and their curved trajectory appears as a perturbation due to the linear Airy propagation regime. [DOI: 10.2971/jeos.2009.09039]