Self-focusing and Raman scattering of laser pulses in tenuous plasmas

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Abstract
The propagation of laser pulses of intensity which is large enough for relativistic self-focusing to occur is strongy affected by Raman instabilities. Both large and small angle scattering are important. The latter is the most severe since it couples with relativistic self-focusing leading the pulses to acquire significant axial and transverse structure in a time of the order of the self-focusing time. This prevents smooth self-focused pulses propagation for distances longer than the Rayleigh length except for pulse duration of the order of the plasma period.