Propagation of ultrashort intense laser pulses in a plasma Bragg
grating induced by two counterpropagating laser pulses has been
investigated. Such a plasma grating exhibits an ultrawide photonic band
gap, near which strong dispersion appears. It is found that the grating
dispersion dominates the dispersion of background plasma by several orders
of magnitude. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations show light speed
reduction, pulse stretching, and chirped pulse compression in the plasma
grating. The nonlinear coupled-mode theory agrees well with the PIC
results. Because the plasma grating has a much higher damage threshold
than the ordinary optical elements made of metal or dielectric, it can be
a novel tool for controlling femtosecond intense laser pulses.