Self-Channeling of High-Power Long-Wave Infrared Pulses in Atomic Gases

We simulate and elucidate the self-channeling of high-power 10 μm infrared pulses in atomic gases. The major new result is that the peak intensity can remain remarkably stable over many Rayleigh ranges. This arises from the balance between the self-focusing, diffraction, and defocusing caused by the excitation induced dephasing due to many-body Coulomb effects that enhance the low-intensity plasma densities. This new paradigm removes the Rayleigh range limit for sources in the 8-12 μm atmospheric transmission window and enables transport of individual multi-TW pulses over multiple kilometer ranges.