Optics and Photonics Society of Iran

In this paper, we investigate the interaction of an intense ultrashort laser pulse with an underdense non-uniform plasma and propagation of the excited plasma waves, using a 2D electromagnetic PIC simulation code. Passing the intense ultrashort in plasma, the plasma waves appear in the propagation direction behind the laser pulse. The amplitude of the excited strong plasma wave gets distorted over time and therefore the wave-breaking phenomenon occurs. The wave-breaking phenomenon increases the energy transmission of the wave to the plasma particles. In the present paper, we illustrate that passing the laser through a non-uniform plasma, the excited plasma wave gets distorted in amplitudes below the wave-breaking threshold. The reason of this phenomenon can be attributed to the spatial dependency of the wave characteristic frequency which leads to the breaking of wave below the breaking amplitudes in a uniform plasma.