Ultrafast swelling and shrinking of soot in alkanol–air flames induced by femtosecond laser filamentation

Soot, which is produced through the rapid growth of hydrocarbon molecules in fuel-rich flames, has been proved to be responsible for global warming and harmful to the respiratory system of human. However, the complex formation process of soot in flames has not been understood yet because of the lack of efficient time-resolved methods for monitoring soot and its precursor species. We present here a viable pump–probe approach to measure ultrafast...