Control of chaos in laser plasma interaction

The chaotic dynamics originating from the equation governing the laser plas ma interaction is studied. Our motivation is to show that it is possible to control this chaotic scenario either to a periodic state or to a totally s teady state by adopting two different modes of control - one is the sinusoi dal time variation of one parameter of the system and the other is the prop ortional pulse approach. Extensive use is made of Poincare section, power s pectrum analysis and phase space plot to prove the assertions. The observat ions can be of practical use in the simulation of plasma experiments. (C) 2 001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.