Hamburg Supercontinuum Challenge
Supercontinuum generation in a bulk crystal is a complicated process. First the beam of ultrashort pulses changes the refractive index of material - it creates a lens. The beam itself starts self-focusing up to the limit when its intensity becomes large enough to start photoionization. At this point the ultrashort pulse starts to interact with free charges and its spectrum broadens rapidly - a supercontinuum is formed.
Together with a group from Max Planck Institute in Hamburg we have decided to take on the challenge of supercontinuum generation simulation with help of the Hussar software. The main issue here is to include lighr-current interaction and photoionization into the model.