Filamentation and Pulse Self-compression in the Anomalous Dispersion Region of Glasses

The propagation of near-infrared ultra-short laser pulses in the regime of anomalous dispersion of transparent solids is associated with a host of self-induced effects including a significant spectral broadening extending from the ultraviolet into the infrared region, pulse self-compression down to few-cycle pulse durations, free and driven third harmonic generation, conical emission and the formation of stable filaments over several \(\mathop{\mathrm{cm}}\nolimits\) showing the emergence of conical light bullets. We review measurements performed in different experimental conditions and results of numerical simulations of unidirectional propagation models showing that the interpretation of all these phenomena proceeds from the formation of non-spreading conical light bullets during filamentation.