Relativistic and charge-displacement self-channeling of intense ultrashort laser pulses in plasmas

Journal Article · Wed Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · Physical Review A. General Physics; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.45.5830· OSTI ID:7113230

Borisov, A B ^[1]; Borovskiy, A V ^[2]; Shiryaev, O B ^[1]; Korobkin, V V; Prokhorov, A M ^[2]; Solem, J C ^[3]; Luk, T S; Boyer, K; Rhodes, C K ^[4]

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1. Laboratory for Computer Simulation, Research Computer Center, Moscow State University, 119899 Moscow (Russia)
2. General Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences of Russia, 117942 Moscow (Russia)
3. Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
4. Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60680 (United States)

A simple derivation in the Coulomb gauge of the nonlinear Schroedinger equation describing propagation of powerful ultrashort circularly polarized laser pulses in underdense cold inhomogeneous plasmas is presented. Numerical solutions are given for the two-dimensional axisymmetric case for both initially homogeneous plasmas and static preformed plasma columns. These solutions account for (i) diffraction, (ii) refraction arising from variations in the refractive index due to the spatial profile of the electron density distribution, (iii) the relativistic electronic mass shift, and (iv) the charge displacement resulting from the transverse ponderomotive force. The most important spatial modes of propagation corresponding to (1) purely relativistic focusing and (2) the combined action of both the relativistic and charge-displacement mechanisms are described. The latter leads to the formation of stable confined modes of propagation having paraxially localized regions of high intensity and corresponding paraxially situated cavitated channels in the electron density. It is further demonstrated that the dynamical solutions of the propagation tend asymptotically to the lowest eigenmodes of the governing nonlinear Schroedinger equation. Finally, the calculations illustrate the dynamics of the propagation and show that the relativistic mechanism promotes the initial concentration of the radiative energy and that the subsequent charge displacement stabilizes this confinement and produces waveguidelike channels.

• OSTI ID: 7113230
• Journal Information: Physical Review A. General Physics; (United States), Vol. 45:8; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
COLD PLASMA
PULSED IRRADIATION
INHOMOGENEOUS PLASMA
CHARGE DISTRIBUTION
DIFFRACTION
LASERS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PULSES
REFRACTION
SCHROEDINGER EQUATION
TRANSMISSION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
WAVE PROPAGATION
COHERENT SCATTERING
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
IRRADIATION
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PLASMA
SCATTERING
WAVE EQUATIONS
700350* - Plasma Production
Heating
Current Drive
& Interactions- (1992-)