Filamentation of ultrashort laser pulses in silica glass and KDP crystals: A comparative study

Ionizing 800-nm femtosecond laser pulses propagating in silica glass and in potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal are investigated by means of a unidirectional pulse propagation code. Filamentation in fused silica is compared with the self-channeling of light in KDP accounting for the presence of defect states and electron-hole dynamics. In KDP, laser pulses produce intense filaments with higher clamping intensities up to 200 TW/cm(2) and longer plasma channels with electron densities above 1016 cm(-3). Despite these differences, the propagation dynamics in silica and KDP are almost identical at equivalent ratios of input power over the critical power for self-focusing.