Weakly relativistic and ponderomotive effects on self-focusing and self-compression of laser pulses in near critical plasmas

Journal Article · Wed Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4898057· OSTI ID:22299704

Bokaei, B.

The spatiotemporal dynamics of high power laser pulses in near critical plasmas are studied taking in to account the effects of relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities. First, within one-dimensional analysis, the effects of initial parameters such as laser intensity, plasma density, and plasma electron temperature on the self-compression mechanism are discussed. The results illustrate that the ponderomotive nonlinearity obstructs the relativistic self-compression above a certain intensity value. Moreover, the results indicate the existence of the turning point temperature in which the compression process has its strongest strength. Next, the three-dimensional analysis of laser pulse propagation is investigated by coupling the self-focusing equation with the self-compression one. It is shown that in contrast to the case in which the only relativistic nonlinearity is considered, in the presence of ponderomotive nonlinearity, the self-compression mechanism obstructs the self-focusing and leads to an increase of the laser spot size.

• OSTI ID: 22299704
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 21; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
FOCUSING
LASERS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA DENSITY
PONDEROMOTIVE FORCE
PULSES
RELATIVISTIC RANGE