Development of small-scale self-focusing of laser radiation in the plasma corona of spherical targets

Analytic and numerical studies are reported of self-focusing of a laser beam in a spatially inhomogeneous moving plasma. It is shown that when laser radiation of λ~1μ wavelength is used to heat and compress "reactor scale" targets, the striction mechanism of self-focusing results in a transverse inhomogeneity of laser radiation near the critical surface and this inhomogeneity is of the order of 20-30% for a 5% inhomogeneity of the incident light flux.