Intense Laser Pulse Propagation and Wakefield Generation in Plasma

Advances in laser technology have made possible compact terawatt laser systems with high intensities (I 0 ≥ 1018 W/cm2), modest energies (≤ 100 J) and short pulses (τl ≤ 1 ps). At ultra-high intensities, the laser-electron interaction becomes highly nonlinear and relativistic, thus resulting in a wide variety of new and interesting phenomena [1-5]. These phenomena include: (i) laser excitation of large amplitude plasma waves (wakefields) [1,3-5], (ii) relativistic optical guiding of laser pulses by plasmas [2-5], and (iii) optical guiding by preformed plasma channels [5]. This paper briefly discusses the these phenomena, including self-consistent, 2D-axisymmetric simulations.