Resonant absorption and not-so-resonant absorption in short, intense laser irradiated plasma

Abstract

An analytical model for laser-plasma interaction during the oblique incidence by an ultrashort ultraintense p-polarized laser on a solid-density plasma is proposed. Both the resonant absorption and not-so-resonant absorption are self-consistently included. Different from the previous theoretical works, the physics of resonant absorption is found to be valid in more general conditions as the steepening of the electron density profile is considered. Even for a relativistic intensity laser, resonant absorption can still exist under certain plasma scale length. For shorter plasma scale length or higher laser intensity, the not-so-resonant absorption tends to be dominant, since the electron density is steepened to a critical level by the ponderomotive force. The laser energy absorption rates for both mechanisms are discussed in detail, and the difference and transition between these two mechanisms are presented.