Andrea Macchi et al 2007 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 49 B71 doi:10.1088/0741-3335/49/12B/S05
Andrea Macchi1,2, Alessandra Bigongiari2, Francesco Ceccherini2, Fulvio Cornolti2, Tatiana V Liseikina2, Marco Borghesi3, Satyabrata Kar3 and Lorenzo Romagnani3
Show affiliationsThe propagation of a superintense laser pulse in an underdense, inhomogeneous plasma has been studied numerically by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations on a time scale extending up to several picoseconds. The effects of the ion dynamics following the charge-displacement self-channeling of the laser pulse have been addressed. Radial ion acceleration leads to the 'breaking' of the plasma channel walls, causing an inversion of the radial space-charge field and the filamentation of the laser pulse. At later times a number of long-lived, quasi-periodic field structures are observed and their dynamics is characterized with high resolution. Inside the plasma channel, a pattern of electric and magnetic fields resembling both soliton- and vortex-like structures is observed.
52.38.Hb Self-focussing, channeling, and filamentation in plasmas
Issue 12B (December 2007)
Received 6 July 2007
Published 14 November 2007
Andrea Macchi et al 2007 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 49 B71
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