Molecular rotovibrational dynamics excited in optical filamentation

The rotovibrational dynamics excited by optical filamentation in molecular gases is studied in the temporal domain. Two time-delayed replicas of the same laser pulse have been used to generate a first filament, for the rotovibrational excitation of the sample, and a second collinear filament probing the Raman dynamics. The Fermi doublet structure in CO2 as well as the very fast stretching mode of H-2 were clearly resolved. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America