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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 85 » Issue 10
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2124–2127 (2000)

Mutual Attraction of Laser Beams in Plasmas: Braided Light

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C. Ren, R. G. Hemker, R. A. Fonseca*, B. J. Duda, and W. B. Mori
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547

Received 18 April 2000; published in the issue dated 4 September 2000

Using a variational method, we show that an effective attractive force exists between two Gaussian laser beams in a plasma because of a mutual coupling from relativistic mass corrections. The effective force can be generalized to other nonlinearities. This force can cause two laser beams to spiral around each other with a rotation period that is proportional to the Rayleigh length. These orbits are stable if the ratio of the orbit diameter to the laser spot size d0/W0≤√2. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are presented which confirm the mutual attraction.

© 2000 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2124
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2124
PACS:
52.35.Mw, 42.65.-k, 52.40.Nk, 52.65.-y

*Permanent address: GoLP/Centro de Fisica dos Plasmas, Instituto Superior Tecnico, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.

 
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