Collision of two short laser pulses in plasma and the generation of short-lived Bragg mirrors

Abstract

We consider the nonlinear excitation of small-scale electron-density perturbations when two identical short laser pulses propagating toward each other collide in plasma. Pulses with duration τ of the order of the plasma-oscillation period ωpτ ≤ 1, ωp is the plasma frequency) are shown to excite long-lived localized plasma oscillations in the collision region. The energy conservation laws for the nonlinear mixing of short laser pulses in plasma are analyzed. We investigate the scattering of a sounding wave by the electron-density perturbations produced in the pulse collision region (short-lived Bragg mirror).