Angle-resolved multioctave supercontinua from mid-infrared laser filaments.

Angle-resolved spectral analysis of a multioctave high-energy supercontinuum output of mid-infrared laser filaments is shown to provide a powerful tool for understanding intricate physical scenarios behind laser-induced filamentation in the mid-infrared. The ellipticity of the mid-infrared driver beam breaks the axial symmetry of filamentation dynamics, offering a probe for a truly (3+1)-dimensional spatiotemporal evolution of mid-IR pulses in the filamentation regime. With optical harmonics up to the 15th order contributing to supercontinuum generation in such filaments alongside Kerr-type and ionization-induced nonlinearities, the output supercontinuum spectra span over five octaves from the mid-ultraviolet deep into the mid-infrared.