Filament damage formation in fused silica glass as a result of 1–50 ps near-infrared laser pulses

We measure filament damage due to self-focusing in fused silica glass using short laser pulses of 1-50 ps of 1053 nm wavelength. We examine the dependence of the effect on the excitation fluence and pulse length. A beam propagation model adjusted to picosecond pulse lengths shows a good fit to the measurements. Whereas for longer pulses a filament appears within the bulk, for the shorter pulses surface damage appears due to the high nonlinearity of the system.