Laser Envelope Solitons in Plasmas

Modulated light pulses in which the modulation envelope propagates as an isolated solitary plasma wave are an interesting class of exact one dimensional nonlinear solutions of the relativistic cold plasma model. They have been investigated in great detail in recent years due to their potential applications in various intense laser plasma interaction scenarios including plasma based particle and photon acceleration schemes, fast ignition method of laser fusion and radiation dynamics around a pulsar. We review some of the interesting properties of these solitons and discuss a few fundamental issues related to their existence, spectral properties and the influence of ion dynamics and finite temperature effects. We also present a new class of solitary wave solutions that exhibit an oscillatory structure in the amplitude of the electrostatic potential