Generation of a magnetic field in a weakly inhomogeneous plasma interacting with a short laser pulse

The generation of a quasistationary magnetic field in a plasma interacting with a weakly focused low-intensity short laser pulse has been studied. It has been shown that the magnetic field changes direction at times comparable with the free path time of effective electrons. Generation also occurs after the switching off of the short pulse and the maximum field is proportional to the duration of the pulse and is reached at times larger than the free path time of the suprathermal electrons.