Observation of Optical Precursors in Water

We observe the formation of optical precursors while propagating 540 fs pulses through 700 mm of deionized water. The launched pulses were strongly chirped to give them a bandwidth of approximately 60 nm to more readily excite the precursors. The precursors attenuated nonexponentially with distance.

Figure 1

Transmission with distance for a 80 nm wide pulse centered around 700 nm.

Figure 2

Cross correlation of pulses, normalized, traveling through 100–700 mm of deionized water.

Figure 3

Cross correlation of pulses, traveling through 500–700 mm of deionized water.