  The interaction of laser with plasmas leads to many interesting phenomena
which includes laser energy absorption, mode conversion, energetic particle
generation etc. In this work, the excitation of Korteweg - de Vries (KdV)
Alfven solitons in plasma is demonstrated with the help of 2-D Particle - In -
Cell (PIC) simulations. For this purpose, the propagation of a pulsed $CO_2$
(with a wavelength of $10 \mu m$) laser normally incident on an overdense
plasma target is considered in the presence of an external magnetic field. The
magnitude of the external magnetic field is chosen so as to have the electrons
magnetized and ions unmagnetized at the laser frequency. These solitons
propagate stably and are observed to be responsible for energetic electron
generation as the background undisturbed electrons of the medium get reflected
from its front. It is also shown that subsequently, transverse modulations
appear in the structure which grow with time. With recent technological
advancements in the development of short pulse $CO_2$ lasers and also on the
generation of magnetic fields of the order of tens of kilo - Tesla in the
laboratory, these studies have practical relevance and have a possibility of
getting replicated in laboratory in near future.
