Generation of a wakefield during gas ionization

One-dimensional equations are derived that describe the hydrodynamic and electrodynamic properties of a plasma created through gas ionization by a short intense laser pulse. Different approaches (in particular, the particle-in-cell method) are used to show that, with ionization processes included, the excitation of a wakefield by an intense laser pulse can be described by the method of slowly varying amplitudes. It is shown that ionization...