A note on the nonlinear reflection of laser radiation from a dense plasma

A high power laser radiation propagating in a dense plasma, suffers total reflection from the critical layer (ωsub(p)=ω). At the critical layer the electric field of the laser is considerably high and the plasma experiences a strong ponderomotive force. This force causes considerable redistribution of the plasma density and hence the phenomenon of reflection is greatly modified. For a typical CO2 laser, the nonlinear effects are prominent at power densities approximately 1013 Watts/cm2. (author)