The anomalous self-distortion of Gaussian laser beams in a periodic rippled plasma

In the paper, variational technique has been applied and a standard trial function has been used for the laser beams to investigate intense laser beams propagation in a periodic rippled plasma. Due to the combination effect of relativistic nonlinearity, diffraction effect and the ripple of plasma, the results show that laser beams present obvious anomalous self-distortion in comparison with previous investigations by Sharma et al. and Jha et al. The anomalous self-distortion is reflected in the spatial oscillation variation of beam width and beam intensity, and beam width presents four different spatial variations rather than the previous three kinds. Extraordinary self-distortion of beam width is found; the oscillation interval of beam width is between minimum (0 < f(min) < 1) and maximum (1 < f(max)), and results in a very intense quasi-self-focusing, i.e., it implies that the rippled plasma can strengthen beam self-focusing and self-distortion. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.