Magnetic field effect on the self-focusing of an intense laser pulse interacting with a bulk medium of graphite nanoparticles

Abstract

The motivation of the present work is the study of self-focusing of an intense laser beam propagating through a magnetized bulk medium consisting of metallic nanoparticles. Using a perturbative method, the wave equation describing the nonlinear interaction of the intense laser beam with metallic magnetized nanoparticles is derived. Evolution of the laser spot size for the circular polarization with the Gaussian profile is considered. A graphite nanoparticle medium is introduced as a good candidate for self-focusing of electromagnetic waves with the wavelength in the micrometer range where plasmon resonance occurs. In such a frequency area, using a few hundred Tesla external magnetic field can substantially improve the focusing property of the medium. The threshold power for self-focusing at least two orders of magnitude is less than that for the identical case of the plasma medium. In addition, a typical external magnetic field for improving the focusing property of the medium is much lower than other conventional nonlinear media like plasma.