title: Plasma ion evolution in the wake of a high-intensity ultrashort laser pulse.
abstract: Experimental investigations of the late-time ion structures formed in the wake of an ultrashort, intense laser pulse propagating in a tenuous plasma have been performed using the proton imaging technique. The pattern found in the wake of the laser pulse shows unexpectedly regular modulations inside a long, finite width channel. On the basis of extensive particle in cell simulations of the plasma evolution in the wake of the pulse, we interpret this pattern as due to ion modulations developed during a two-stream instability excited by the return electric current generated by the wakefield.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics and Physics, The Queen's University of Belfast, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Borghesi
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Bulanov
authors.forename: T Zh
authors.initials: TZh
authors.lastname: Esirkepov
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fritzler
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kar
authors.forename: T V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Liseikina
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Malka
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pegoraro
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Romagnani
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Rousseau
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schiavi
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Willi
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Zayats