Pulse distortion and modulation instability in laser plasma interaction

The present paper deals with the propagation of a short, intense, Gaussian laser pulse in plasma. Using a one dimensional model, a wave equation including finite pulse length and group velocity dispersion is set up and solved to obtain the intensity distribution across the laser pulse. It is shown that the pulse profile becomes asymmetric as it propagates through plasma. Further, the growth rate of modulation instability and range of unstable frequencies across the laser pulse have been derived and graphically analyzed.