Probing spatial properties of electronic excitation in water after interaction with temporally shaped femtosecond laser pulses: Experiments and simulations

•Temporally asymmetric shaped femtosecond laser pulses lead to excitation over smaller area and larger depth in water.•Transient optical properties are measured radially resolved by spectral interference in an imaging geometry.•Radially resolved spectral interference shows indications of nonlinear propagation effects at high fluences. In this work, laser excitation of water under ambient conditions is investigated by radially resolved common-path spectral interferometry. Water, as a sample system for dielectric materials, is excited by ultrashort bandwidth-limited and temporally asymmetric shaped femtosecond laser pulses, where the latter start with an intense main pulse followed by a decaying pulse sequence, i.e. a temporal Airy pulse. Spectral interference in an imaging geometry allows measurements of the transient optical properties integrated along the propagation through the sample but radially resolved with respect to the transverse beam profile. Since the optical properties reflect the dynamics of the free-electron plasma, such measurements reveal the spatial characteristics of the laser excitation. We conclude that temporally asymmetric shaped laser pulses are a promising tool for high-precision laser material processing, as they reduce the transverse area of excitation, but increase the excitation inside the material along the beam propagation.