Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of plasma cavitation and bursty Brillouin backscattering for nonrelativistic laser intensities

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of laser-plasma interaction using a plane-wave geometry show strong bursty stimulated Brillouin backscattering, rapid filamentation, and subsequent plasma cavitation. It is shown that the cavitation is not induced by self-focusing. The electromagnetic fields below the plasma frequency that are excited are related to transient soliton-like structures. At the origin of these solitons is a three-wave decay process exciting new modes in the plasma. The cavitation is responsible for a strong local reduction of the reflectivity and goes along with an efficient but transient heating of the electrons. Once heating ceases, transmission starts to increase. Local as well as global average reflectivities attain a very low value due to strong plasma density variations brought about by the cavitation process. On the one hand, the simulations confirm the existence of a new mechanism of cavity and soliton formation in nonrelativistic laser-plasma interaction in two dimensions, which was shown to exist in one-dimensional simulations [S. Weber, C. Riconda, and V. T. Tikhonchuk, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 055005 (2005)]. On the other hand, new aspects are introduced inherently related to the additional degree of freedom.