Weakly relativistic ponderomotive effects on self-focusing in the interaction of cosh-Gaussian laser beams with a plasma

Abstract

The effect of weakly relativistic ponderomotive force in the interaction of cosh-Gaussian laser beams with a plasma is studied. This force modifies the electron density distribution in the plasma. A nonlinear differential equation governing the evolution of the beam width parameter f in the WKB and paraxial approximations is set up using a parabolic equation approach and solved numerically. Self-focusing of a cosh-Gaussian beam is studied at various values of the decentered parameter b. Numerical analysis shows that the b parameter plays a vital role in the propagation characteristics in the plasma.