1 J white-light continuum from 100 TW laser pulses

We experimentally measured the supercontinuum generation by 3 J, 30 fs laser pulses and measured white-light generation at the unprecedented level of 1 J. Such high energy is allowed by a strong contribution to the continuum by the photon bath, as compared to the self-guided filaments. This contribution due to the recently observed congestion of the filament number density in the beam profile at very high intensity, also results in a wider broadening for positively chirped pulses rather than for negatively chirped ones, similarly to broadening in hollow-core fibers.