Stability of nonlinear one-dimensional laser pulse solitons in a plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stability of one-dimensional nonlinear laser pulse solitons in plasma, revealing that their instability is linked to stimulated Raman scattering and nonlinear phase mixing, which cause explosive density bursts.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical explanation for the instability of laser pulse solitons in plasma based on stimulated Raman scattering and nonlinear phase mixing mechanisms.

Findings

Instability is related to stimulated Raman scattering.

Density bursts are due to explosive nonlinear phase mixing.

The instability mechanism explains previous numerical observations.

Abstract

In a recent one-dimensional numerical fluid simulation study [Saxena et al., Phys. Plasmas 13,032309 (2006)], it was found that an instability is associated with a special class of one-dimensional nonlinear solutions for modulated light pulses coupled to electron plasma waves in a relativistic cold plasma model. It is shown here that the instability can be understood on the basis of the stimulated Raman scattering phenomenon and the occurrence of density bursts in the trailing edge of the modulated structures are a manifestation of an explosive instability arising from a nonlinear phase mixing mechanism.