Figure 3

Temporal evolution of the plasma formation induced by conventionally focused pulses of 3 µJ: (a–e) present shadowgraphic images for increasing the probe-pulse delay (Δt=0.5 ps), beginning at t=−0.5 ps in a. Pump pulses incident from the left. Black scale bar indicates 100 µm. The white line marks the position where the probe-pulse transmission and plasma density are analyzed and plotted in (f).