Cross focusing of two laser beams and plasma wave excitation

This article presents the cross focusing of two high power laser beams in a plasma when relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities are operative. The effect of electron density modification changes the critical power significantly in contrast to (only) relativistic case. The plasma wave generation at the difference frequency and particle acceleration has also been studied. In a typical case when laser wavelengths are 1047 and 1064 nm and electron density 1.9x10(19) cm(-3), the maximum electron plasma wave power flux comes out to be 6x10(17) W/cm(2) (laser power P-1=3.6x10(18) W/cm(2) and P-2=3.2x10(18) W/cm(2)). (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.