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All-Optical Suppression Of Relativistic Self-Focusing Of Laser Beams In Plasmas, Serguei Y. Kalmykov, Sunghwan A. Yi, Gennady Shvets

Serge Youri Kalmykov

It is demonstrated that a catastrophic relativistic self-focusing (RSF) of a high-power laser pulse can be prevented all-optically by a second, much weaker, copropagating pulse. RSF suppression occurs when the difference frequency of the pulses slightly exceeds the electron plasma frequency. The mutual defocusing is caused by the three-dimensional electron density perturbation driven by the laser beat wave slightly above the plasma resonance. A bi-envelope model describing the early stage of the mutual defocusing is derived and analyzed. Later stages, characterized by the presence of a strong electromagnetic cascade, are investigated numerically. Stable propagation of the laser pulse with weakly …