Collision of two short laser pulses in plasma and the generation of short-lived Bragg mirrors

We consider the nonlinear excitation of small-scale electron-density pertur bations when two identical short laser pulses propagating toward each other collide in plasma. Pulses with duration tau of the order of the plasma-osc illation period (omega (p)tau less than or equal to 1, omega (p) is the pla sma frequency) are shown to excite long-lived localized plasma oscillations in the collision region. The energy conservation laws for the nonlinear mi xing of short laser pulses in plasma are analyzed. We investigate the scatt ering of a sounding wave by the electron-density perturbations produced in the pulse collision region (short-lived Bragg mirror). (C) 2001 MAIK "Nauka /Interperiodica".