# DRELP

Dynamic RElativistic Laser Propagation

DRELP offers an easily accessible, optics-based approach to relativistic laser propagation in underdense plasmas, comparable to hydrodynamics modelling of laser interaction with solids. It is part of the example code for the book Short Pulse Laser Interactions with matter. The code takes actual experimental laser and target conditions as input parameters, and provides a guide to propagation behaviour near the critical self-focussing power.

A detailed description of the model equations, the numerical scheme and some examples of its use in simulating relativistic laser channeling can be found in the paper by Gibbon et al., [Phys. Plasmas 2, 1305 (1995)].

### Compiling and running DRELP

The present version is written in standard fortran-77 and will compile on a standard Linux-PC with the GNU g77 compiler. To compile, change to the directory where the source was unpacked (eg: $HOME/propag/ ) and type: > cd src > make drelp If you use a different compiler (eg. ifc from Intel), you will need to change some of the flags in the makefile accordingly. Example scripts are provided in run_scripts/ which perform additional chores such as creating run a directory, copying a set of input parameters into a namelist file, and renaming some of the output files. These can be freely adapted to the user's needs and directory structure. Before running a script, change the TOP variable to your installation directory ($HOME/propag by default). A summary of the main routines, input parameters and output data can be found in the file README_code inside the distribution package.

### Sample plots

Sample plots generated with these scripts are provided in the example_plots/ directory. The first 3 examples use the `steady state' mode - infinite pulse length, variation in (r,z) only. The last 2 include ionization, assume a finite pulse length, and compute the propagation dynamics of the whole pulse in (r,z,t).
A list can be found in the file README inside the distribution package.