Optical multi-hysteresises and quasi-solitons in nonlinear plasma

Abstract

An overdense plasma layer irradiated by intense light can exhibit dramatic nonlinear-optical effects due to a relativistic mass-effect of free electrons: highly-multiple hysteresises of reflection and transition, and emergence of immobile waves of large amplitude. Those are trapped quasi-soliton spikes sustained by a weak pumping having a tiny fraction of their peak intensity once they have been excited first by higher power pumping. The phenomenon persists even in the layers with "soft", wash-out boundaries, as well as in a semi-infinite plasma with low absorption.