Femtosecond laser induced plasma diffraction gratings in air as photonic devices for high intensity laser applications

The creation of volume plasma density gratings in air by temporally overlapped high-intensity IR femtosecond laser pulses is demonstrated experimentally. Through the diffraction of various probe beams the plasma grating properties are recovered including its thickness and refractive index modulation, as well as its decay dynamics. The diffraction properties of these plasma photonic devices suggest that they can be used in applications involving high intensity lasers, such as filamentation, where no physical objects can be placed in the path of the laser beams.