Nonlinear interaction of intense hypergeometric Gaussian subfamily laser beams in plasma

•This work can be used to improve electron bunch quality in laser accelerators.•By choosing suitable conditions, HyGG modes can be converted to their components.•The bright rings’ number of HyGG modes is changed by propagating in plasma medium.•Beam width oscillations take place earlier when the lower vortex number is chosen.•For further input intensity the focusing of HyGG modes takes place earlier.

Propagation of Hypergeometric-Gaussian laser beam in a nonlinear plasma medium is investigated by considering the Source Dependent Expansion method. A subfamily of Hypergeometric-Gaussian beams with a non-negative, even and integer radial index, can be expressed as the linear superposition of finite number of Laguerre–Gaussian functions. Propagation of Hypergeometric-Gaussian beams in a nonlinear plasma medium depends on the value of radial index. The bright rings’ number of these beams is changed during the propagation in plasma medium. The effect of beam vortex charge number l and initial (input) beam intensity on the self-focusing of Hypergeometric-Gaussian beams is explored. Also, by choosing the suitable initial conditions, Hypergeometric-Gaussian subfamily beams can be converted to one or more mode components that a typical of mode conversion may be occurred. The self-focusing of these winding beams can be used to control the focusing force and improve the electron bunch quality in laser plasma accelerators.