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Updated: May 13, 2026

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses
Published on: July 2, 2012
Nonlinear interaction of intense laser pulses and an inhomogeneous electron-positron-ion plasma
Li-Hong Cheng1, Rong-An Tang, Ai-Xia Zhang
1College of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
Abstract:
The nonlinear interaction of an ultraintense short laser beam and an inhomogeneous electron-positron-ion (EPI) plasma is investigated. It is found that the presence of positrons and inhomogeneity results in strong modulational and filamentational instabilities, which induce strong nonlinear interactions between the laser beam and the inhomogeneous EPI plasma. Light beam focusing, filamentation, trapping, and nonlinear interaction between the trapped light spots and the inhomogeneous plasma are observed. Interestingly, we find that the inhomogeneity of the plasma can not only boost a mechanism for light beam self-focusing and filamentation but also provide an effective way to localize and trap the beam in the region one wanted.
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