Relativistic Filamentation of Intense Laser Beam in Inhomogeneous Plasma

In the paper, relativistic filamentation of intense laser beam in inhomogeneous plasma is investigated based on the nonparaxial region theory. The results show that, relativistic nonlinearity plays a main role in beam filamentation, and plasma inhomogeneity further reinforce the beam filamentation. The combination effects of relativistic nonlinearity and plasma inhomogeneity can generate particularly intense and short pulse laser. However, plasma inhomogeneity lead to obvious filamentation instability.