The effect of thermal self-focusing of laser beams

During the propagation of a laser beam through a gas medium, the wave motions of the medium induced by absorption of the emission can result in a self-focusing of the beam. Here, the mechanism of the self-focusing effect is analyzed by solving numerically a self-consistent problem involving calculation of nonstationary acoustic equations of gas dynamics allowing for the absorption of laser radiation and equations describing the propagation of laser beams in an inhomogeneous medium.