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Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2082 - 2085 (1993)

Necessary and sufficient conditions for self-focusing of short ultraintense laser pulse in underdense plasma

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X. L. Chen and R. N. Sudan
Laboratory of Plasma Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853

Received 15 January 1993

We analyze the propagation of a short intense laser pulse in underdense cold plasma. When no electron cavitation is present, a global invariant H is obtained, and its relation with self-focusing is studied. For relativistic self-focusing, H<0 is a sufficient and necessary condition. For relativistic and ponderomotive self-focusing, H<0 is sufficient but not necessary. Numerical simulations are performed to confirm the above points.


©1993 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.2082
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.2082
PACS: 52.40.Nk, 52.35.Mw, 52.40.Db

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