Relativistic toroidal light solitons in plasma

Abstract

Abstract In the laser–plasma interaction, relativistic soliton formation is an interesting nonlinear phenomenon and important light mode convection in plasmas. Here, it is shown by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that relativistic toroidal solitons, composed of intense light self-consistently trapped in toroidal plasma cavities, can be produced by azimuthally-polarized relativistic laser pulses in a near-critical underdense plasma.