Abstract
The relativistic oscillation of the mass of the electrons and also the relativistic electron ponderomotive force are shown to have a effect on the nonlinear propagation of intense electromagnetic waves. Based on WKB and paraxial ray theory, the steady state nonlinear refraction of relativistically intense, circularly polarized, Gaussian electromagnetic beams in an inhomogeneous plasma is studied. The nature of propagation of the beam depends on the power, width of the beam and 'Ω', the ratio of plasma and wave-frequency. It can be concluded from the calculations that electromagnetic waves can propagate in different regimes. The regions are steady divergence, oscillatory divergence and self-focusing. Numerical estimates are made for typical values of relativistic laser-plasma interaction process with electron density varying between 1017 -1020 particles per cm 3 and radiation intensities in the range 1016 -1020 W/cm 2 for different plasma density ramp functions.
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