Nonlinear plasma-assisted collapse of ring-Airy wave packets

We numerically demonstrate that femtosecond ring-Airy wave packets are able to overcome the reference intensity clamping of 4×1013 W/cm2 for filaments generated with Gaussian beams at low numerical apertures and form an intense sharp intensity peak on axis. Numerical simulations, with unidirectional propagation models for the pulse envelope and the carrier resolved electric field, reveal that the driving mechanism for this unexpected intensity increase is due to the self-generated plasma. The plasma formation, in conjunction with the circular geometry of the beam, force the wave packet into a multistage collapse process which takes place faster than the saturating mechanisms can compensate. We report here a nonstandard mechanism that increases the intensity of a collapsing wave packet, due to the joint contributions of the cubic phase of the Airy beam and the formation of a partially reflecting plasma.