Houard Aurélien, Walch Pierre, Produit Thomas, Moreno Victor, Mahieu Benoit, Sunjerga Antonio, Herkommer Clemens, Mostajabi Amirhossein, Andral Ugo, André Yves-Bernard, Lozano Magali, Bizet Laurent, Schroeder Malte C, Schimmel Guillaume, Moret Michel, Stanley Mark, Rison W A, Maurice Oliver, Esmiller Bruno, Michel Knut, Haas Walter, Metzger Thomas, Rubinstein Marcos, Rachidi Farhad, Cooray Vernon, Mysyrowicz André, Kasparian Jérôme, Wolf Jean-Pierre
Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée - ENSTA Paris, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, IP Paris, Palaiseau, France.
Groupe de Physique Appliquée, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland.
Nat Photonics. 2023;17(3):231-235. doi: 10.1038/s41566-022-01139-z. Epub 2023 Jan 16.
Lightning discharges between charged clouds and the Earth's surface are responsible for considerable damages and casualties. It is therefore important to develop better protection methods in addition to the traditional Franklin rod. Here we present the first demonstration that laser-induced filaments-formed in the sky by short and intense laser pulses-can guide lightning discharges over considerable distances. We believe that this experimental breakthrough will lead to progress in lightning protection and lightning physics. An experimental campaign was conducted on the Säntis mountain in north-eastern Switzerland during the summer of 2021 with a high-repetition-rate terawatt laser. The guiding of an upward negative lightning leader over a distance of 50 m was recorded by two separate high-speed cameras. The guiding of negative lightning leaders by laser filaments was corroborated in three other instances by very-high-frequency interferometric measurements, and the number of X-ray bursts detected during guided lightning events greatly increased. Although this research field has been very active for more than 20 years, this is the first field-result that experimentally demonstrates lightning guided by lasers. This work paves the way for new atmospheric applications of ultrashort lasers and represents an important step forward in the development of a laser based lightning protection for airports, launchpads or large infrastructures.
带电云层与地球表面之间的闪电放电会造成相当大的破坏和人员伤亡。因此，除了传统的富兰克林避雷针外，开发更好的保护方法很重要。在此，我们首次证明，由短而强的激光脉冲在天空中形成的激光诱导细丝可以在相当远的距离上引导闪电放电。我们相信这一实验突破将推动雷电防护和雷电物理学的发展。2021年夏天，在瑞士东北部的圣蒂斯山上，使用高重复频率太瓦激光器开展了一项实验活动。向上的负闪电先导在50米距离上的引导过程由两台独立的高速摄像机记录下来。在另外三个实例中，通过甚高频干涉测量法证实了激光细丝对负闪电先导的引导作用，并且在引导闪电事件期间检测到的X射线爆发数量大幅增加。尽管该研究领域在20多年来一直非常活跃，但这是首个通过实验证明激光引导闪电的现场结果。这项工作为超短激光在大气中的新应用铺平了道路，也是开发用于机场、发射台或大型基础设施的基于激光的雷电防护技术向前迈出的重要一步。
