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Updated: Aug 4, 2026

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses
Published on: July 2, 2012
Enhanced forward scattering in the case of two crossed laser beams interacting with a plasma
1Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France.
Abstract:
The nonlinear enhancement of large-angle forward scattering of two identical laser beams propagating in a preformed plasma has been observed experimentally. The spectral analysis of the forward-scattered light shows two components, one which is unshifted with respect to the initial laser light frequency, and the other which is redshifted by a few angstroms. The redshifted component is found to be strongly enhanced in the case of crossed beam interaction in comparison with that of one beam illumination. Two-dimensional numerical simulations show that this enhancement is due to large-angle forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in which each beam serves as seed for the forward scattering of the other.
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