title: Ionization-induced small-scaled plasma structures in tightly focused ultrashort laser pulses.
abstract: The laser-matter interaction via optical-field ionization of a medium in a tightly focused ultrashort laser pulse is investigated by finite-difference-time-domain modeling of Maxwell's equations. We show that, unlike in the case of the conventional quasioptical approach, the regime of interaction changes drastically above a certain critical angle of laser beam focusing, resulting in the generation of small-scaled plasma structures which strongly influence the local field distribution and scattering characteristics.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Efimenko
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Quiroga-Teixeiro