The specific features of self-action of high-power laser radiation propagating through a fully ionised cold plasma and the development of modulation instability

The specific features of the propagation of soliton-like light beams through a fully ionised two-dimensional cold plasma are considered employing analytical and numerical methods commonly used in nonlinear optics. Exact soliton profiles for the lower and upper soliton branches are found numerically in the presence of optical bistability. It is shown that the interaction of incoherent soliton-like laser beams in such a plasma may result both in the destruction of one of the beams and in production of new ones. The regime of the modulation instability of a plane wave propagating through a cold laser-produced plasma is studied.