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The generation of nonlinear plasma wake fields by an intense, short laser pulse and the relativistic optical guiding of intense laser pulses in plasmas are studied with a nonlinear, self-consistent model of laser–plasma interactions. Nonlinear steepening and period lengthening of the plasma waves are observed, and expressions are obtained for various nonlinear wake-field quantities. Relativistic focusing with the self-consistent plasma response shows that laser pulse fronts and laser pulses shorter than a plasma wavelength, 2πc/ωp, are not relativistically guided and will continuously erode due to diffraction.
Ting et al. (1990) studied this question.