Temperature of Optical Discharge in Hollow-Core Optical Fibers

The plasma temperature of an optical discharge maintained by laser radiation in the hollow core optical fiber was measured for the first time. Optical discharge in our experiments was initiated and maintained by Nd:YAG laser with a peak power of ~1 MW. The average temperature of the optical discharge reaches a value of about 15 kK (for the hollow core initially filled with air at pressure of 1 atm).