Electron cavitation and acceleration in the wake of an ultraintense, self-focused laser pulse.

A particle code is used to calculate the plasma response to the relativistic ponderomotive force of a short intense laser pulse propagating in a tenuous plasma. The regime of total cavitation of the plasma is investigated. It is found that stable propagation over a long distance is possible in this regime, and the energetic electrons are produced with a simple characteristic dependence of their angle of deflection on energy.