Аннотация:Femtosecond laser radiation self-channeling and second harmonic generation under plasma formation conditions were investigated. Laser pulses with sub- and microjoule energy were tightly focused into the volume of a KDP crystal, Estimated laser pulse intensity was of the order 1013 W/cm2 in the focal spot exceeding damage and plasma ignition thresholds in the crystal. Threshold of plasma channel formation measured in the experiment corresponds to critical power of self-focusing 1.5f0.1 MW for KDP crystal. Plasma channels with length up to 150 μm were observed in the volume of the KDP crystal. We developed an algorithm allowing estimating electron density and temperature in the plasma channel using experimental dependence of laser energy transmittance through the crystal on incident laser energy. For laser pulse energy 1μJ estimated electronic density in the plasma channel is of the order of l020 cm-3 (that is about one tenth of the critical plasma density value) and mean electronic temperature is about 3 eV. Free plasma electrons leaded to refraction index increasing by 5 %, extinction coefficient was -25 cm-1. The maximum measured efficiency of second harmonic generation was 1.2 %.