Self-reconstruction of light filaments

By observing how a light filament generated in water reconstructs itself after hitting a beam stopper in the presence and in the absence of a nonlinear medium, we describe the occurrence of an important linear contribution to reconstruction that is associated with the conical nature of the wave. A possible scenario by which conical wave components are generated inside the medium by the distributed stopper or reflector created by nonlinear losses or plasma is presented. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.