Generation of a high spectral power supercontinuum (SC) is reported from controlled multifilamentation of femtosecond pulses in fused silica. The use of a microlens array allows the manipulation of the filamentation pattern under very high-incident laser pulse energy without sample damage and, consequently, compared with using a single focusing lens, higher power of SC generation with a similar spectral broadening can be obtained. Moreover, the role of the interplay between diffraction pattern and proximity to the focus of the microlens array in SC generation is discussed.

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Deterministic wavelength-dependent multifilamentation is controlled in fused silica by adjusting the diffraction pattern generated by a loosely focusing 2D periodic lens array. By simply translating the sample along the propagation axis the number and distribution of filaments can be controlled and are in agreement with the results of linear diffraction simulations. The loose focusing geometry allows for long filaments whose distribution is conserved along their propagation inside the sample. The effect of incident energy and polarization on filament number is also studied. Laser filamentation controlled by a microlens array could be a promising method for easy and fast 3D track writing in transparent materials.

The spectral evolution of a filament formed by femtosecond laser pulses in fused silica is experimentally investigated. It is found that the evolution of the supercontinuum (SC) spectrum along the single filament is closely related with its intensity and length. The energy conversion efficiency of fundamental laser pulse to SC generation increases monotonically with different rates as the filament length increases, showing an accumulating effect along the filament. The results also show that the short-wavelength cutoff of the SC spectra is more sensitive to the intensity of the filament than the conversion efficiency of the SC, which is contributed mainly by the efficiently ionized zone of the filament.

The filamentation of the femtosecond laser pulse in air with a preformed density hole is studied numerically. The result shows that density-hole-induced defocusing effect can relieve the self-focusing of the pulse, and by changing the length of the density hole and relative delay time, the filamentation length, intensity, spectral energy density and broaden region can be effectively controlled. When a short density hole with millisecond delay time is introduced, a significant elongation of the filamentation and enhancement of supercontinuum intensity can be obtained. This study provides a new method to control filamentation by pulse sequence.