Coherence properties of a smoothed laser beam in a hot plasma

The nonlinear paraxial propagation of a laser beam inside a hot plasma has been simulated by three-dimensional simulations, where the laser beam is sm oothed by spectral dispersion and the plasma response modeled by ion acoust ic waves. The typical coherence times and transverse correlation sizes of t he beam pattern are provided as a function of the propagation distance, the incident irradiance, the initial laser bandwidth, and the plasma density d amping. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070- 664X(00)04710-8].