Evolution of laser induced electromagnetic postsolitons in multi-species plasma

The evolution of an s-polarized relativistic electromagnetic soliton created in multi-species plasma by an intense short laser pulse is investigated using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The multi-component plasma consists of electrons and high-Z ions with a small addition of protons. By comparison, the evolution of postsoliton is very different from that in hydrogen plasma. A halo-like structure is found in spatial patterns of both electromagnetic fields and electron densities. The process of energy depletion is much slower due to the smaller charge-to-mass ratio of ions, which implies a better way of detecting postsolitons in simulations and experiments. In addition, it is found that the Coulomb explosion of high-Z ions in the postsoliton stage facilitates low-Z ion acceleration, and the maximum energy of low-Z ions increases with the component ratio of high-Z to low-Z ions.