Enhanced Beat Wave Saturation Amplitude in an Ionizing Plasma

The excitation of a plasma wave by two laser beams, whose frequency difference is near the plasma frequency, is studied in a plasma with a density that is slowly increasing with time due to ongoing ionization as appropriate for experiments done in laser breakdown plasmas. Numerical integration of the relativistic equation for the evolution of the wave amplitude reveals that for a rate of increase of the plasma density of approximately 1017 cm-3/ns at a laser intensity I = 1014 W/cm2, the wave amplitude can rise considerably above the relativistic saturation limit of Rosenbluth and Liu which was obtained for a plasma of constant density. This increase in plasma density compensates the reduction in plasma frequency caused by the relativistic electron mass increase when the wave amplitude is large. The frequency and phase excursions of the plasma wave are reduced for an optimum time increasing density. We find that moderate damping can stabilize both the amplitude and the phase of the plasma wave with respect to the pump.     

Oscillating two-stream instability of laser wakefield-driven plasma wave

The laser wakefield-driven plasma wave in a low-density plasma is seen to be susceptible to the oscillating two-stream instability (OTSI). The plasma wave couples to two short wavelength plasma wave sidebands. The pump plasma wave and sidebands exert a ponderomotive force on the electrons driving a low-frequency quasimode. The electron density perturbation associated with this mode couples with the pump-driven electron oscillatory velocity to produce nonlinear currents driving the sidebands. At large pump amplitude, the instability grows faster than the ion plasma frequency and ions do not play a significant role. The growth rate of the quasimode, at large pump amplitude scales faster than linear. The growth rate is maximum for an optimum wave number of the quasimode and also increases with pump amplitude. Nonlocal effects, however reduce the growth rate by about half.     

Cross-focusing of two laser beams in a plasma

Cross-focusing of two copropagating laser beams in a plasma is investigated using paraxial ray theory. If the lasers have a frequency difference equal to the electron plasma frequency, they can drive a large amplitude plasma wave. The ponderomotive force due to the plasma wave forces the plasma electrons outwards thereby generating a parabolic density profile giving rise to cross-focusing. The results show a decrease in threshold for focusing by two orders of magnitude as compared to focusing due to the ponderomotive force of the laser beams.     

Mechanisms of electron injection into laser wakefields by a weak counter-propagating pulse

Numerical studies are conducted on the electron injection into the first acceleration bucket of a laser wakefield by a weak counter-propagating laser pulse. It is shown that there are two injection mechanisms involved during the colliding laser interaction, the collective injection and stochastic injection. They are caused by the time-averaged ponderomotive force push and stochastic acceleration in the interfering fields, respectively. The threshold amplitude of the injection laser pulse is estimated for the occurrence of electron injection, which is close to that for stochastic acceleration and depends weakly upon the plasma density. The trapping of a large number of injection electrons can result in significant decay of the laser wakefield behind the first wave bucket.     

PHOTON ACCELERATION DRIVEN BY AN INTENSE LASER PULSE

Interaction of a laser field with a plasma wave is studied by metric optics. Analysis shows that the frequency upshifting of the laser pulse results from the plasma density gradient. A laser beam can be thought of as a packet of photons moving in a plasma and thus the laser frequency upshifting is equivalent to photon acceleration. Examination of the three-dimensional motion equations shows that a laser beam diffraction occurs in the presence of a radial variation of the plasma density. It is argued that the focusing mechanism originating from the plasma wave can curb laser diffraction so that photons may be trapped in the plasma wave and accelerated continuously.     

Large amplitude electromagnetic solitons in intense laser plasma interaction

This paper shows that the standing, backward- and forward-accelerated large amplitude relativistic electromagnetic solitons induced by intense laser pulse in long underdense collisionless homogeneous plasmas can be observed by particle simulations. In addition to the inhomogeneity of the plasma density, the acceleration of the solitons also depends upon not only the laser amplitude but also the plasma length. The electromagnetic frequency of the solitons is between about half and one of the unperturbed electron plasma frequency. The electrostatic field inside the soliton has a one-cycle structure in space, while the transverse electric and magnetic fields have half-cycle and one-cycle structure respectively. Analytical estimates for the existence of the solitons and their electromagnetic frequencies qualitatively coincide with our simulation results.     

Generation of THz Radiation by Laser Plasma Interaction

This paper presents the three wave parametric decay process to generate the Terahertz (THz) radiations in magnetized plasma. The pump wave (Laser beam) is considered in the extraordinary mode (x‐mode), propagating perpendicular to the background magnetic field. This pump wave decays into an upper hybrid wave and a THz wave which is in magnetosonic mode. The appropriate expressions for the coupling coefficients of the threewave interaction and THz wave amplitude have been derived. Subsequently, the growth rate of this decay instability is also calculated. Various laser and plasma parameters were optimized and we report efficiency of the order of ～1.4 × 10^–2 for current scheme. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

低密等离子体通道中的非共振激光直接加速

在低密等离子体通道中, 横向有质动力可以有效调制电子的横向振荡过程. 一方面, 横向有质动力可以向外推动电子, 增大电子横向振荡振幅, 减小失相率, 使电子获得能量增益; 另一方面, 横向有质动力也可以通过对失相率的非线性调制来降低失相率, 在电子横向振荡振幅很小的情况下导致激光直接加速. 横向有质动力调制的大小由等离子体密度、激光强度和束宽共同决定. 三维模型结果也证实可以通过参数放大实现激光直接加速, 弥补了准二维模型的局限性.     

Stochastic heating and acceleration of electrons in colliding laser fields in plasma

We propose a mechanism that leads to efficient acceleration of electrons in plasma by two counterpropagating laser pulses. It is triggered by stochastic motion of electrons when the laser fields exceed some threshold amplitudes, as found in single-electron dynamics. It is further confirmed in particle-in-cell simulations. In vacuum or tenuous plasma, electron acceleration in the case with two colliding laser pulses can be much more efficient than with one laser pulse only. In plasma at moderate densities, such as a few percent of the critical density, the amplitude of the Raman-backscattered wave is high enough to serve as the second counterpropagating pulse to trigger the electron stochastic motion. As a result, even with one intense laser pulse only, electrons can be heated up to a temperature much higher than the corresponding laser ponderomotive potential.     

Fast electrons generation by RF and random fields near the antenna I. One dimensional model and regular fields

Test particle motion and acceleration has been explored in strong radio frequency (RF) fields, for which quasilinear ponderomotive force approximation is not valid. By nonlinear acceleration in spatially varying wave amplitude of RF travelling wave, electrons may be accelerated to time averaged velocities significantly larger than the RF wave phase velocity, and than the boundary plasma thermal velocity, in RF fields of several Volts per centimeter at wave frequency of 7 MHz. It is also demonstrated that even weak spatial gradients, much weaker than those expected in experiments, of the RF wave field amplitude, have significant consequences for the particle motion. Estimates are presented of the total energy transferred from the near antenna RF field to the plasma due to the nonlinear electron acceleration effects.     

Modulation instability of lower hybrid waves leading to cusp solitons in electron–positron(hole)–ion Thomas Fermi plasma

Following the idea of three‐wave resonant interactions of lower hybrid waves, it is shown that quantum‐modified lower hybrid (QLH) wave in electron–positron–ion plasma with spatial dispersion can decay into another QLH wave (where electron and positrons are activated, whereas ions remain in the background) and another ultra‐low frequency quantum‐modified ultra‐low frequency Lower Hybrid (QULH) (where ions are mobile). Quantum effects like Bohm potential and Fermi pressure on the lower hybrid wave significantly reshaped the dispersion properties of these waves. Later, a set of non‐linear Zakharov equations were derived to consider the formation of QLH wave solitons, with the non‐linear contribution from the QLH waves. Furthermore, modulational instability of the lower hybrid wave solitons is investigated, and consequently, its growth rates are examined for different limiting cases. As the growth rate associated with the three‐wave resonant interaction is generally smaller than the growth associated with the modulational instability, only the latter have been investigated. Soliton solutions from the set of coupled Zakharov and NLS equations in the quasi‐stationary regime have been studied. Ordinary solitons are an attribute of non‐linearity, whereas a cusp soliton solution featured by nonlocal nonlinearity has also been studied. Such an approach to lower hybrid waves and cusp solitons study in Fermi gas comprising electron positron and ions is new and important. The general results obtained in this quantum plasma theory will have widespread applicability, particularly for processes in high‐energy plasma–laser interactions set for laboratory astrophysics and solid‐state plasmas.     

等离子体填充耦合腔链特性研究

 用严格的场匹配方法分析了填充等离子体的耦合腔链，研究了等离子体 腔混合模的形成以及“冷带宽”和“热带宽”的展宽效应。等离子体填充周期性耦合腔链后，形成周期性的截止频率为0的等离子体TG模式。当填充的等离子体密度较大，且腔模和TG模式发生部分重叠时，两者相互耦合，形成等离子体 腔混合模式。工作在混合模式下，其“冷带宽”和“热带宽”大大增宽，且耦合阻抗比真空时提高了近5倍，因此在填充等离子体后，耦合腔链的慢波特性得到了显著的改善。     

Channeling of relativistic laser pulses, surface waves, and electron acceleration

The interaction of a high-energy relativistic laser pulse with an underdense plasma is studied by means of 3-dimensional particle in cell simulations and theoretical analysis. For powers above the threshold for channeling, the laser pulse propagates as a single mode in an electron-free channel during a time of the order of 1?picosecond. The steep laser front gives rise to the excitation of a surface wave along the sharp boundaries of the ion channel. The surface wave first traps electrons at the channel wall and preaccelerates them to relativistic energies. These particles then have enough energy to be further accelerated in a second stage through an interplay between the acceleration due to the betatron resonance and the acceleration caused by the longitudinal part of the surface wave electric field. It is necessary to introduce this two-stage process to explain the large number of high-energy electrons observed in the simulations.     

Stimulated Raman backward scattering of a laser beam in a magnetized plasma

Stimulated Raman scattering of a laser beam is investigated in the plasma with strong self generated magnetic field. The magnetized plasma supports various localized radial and azimuthal modes of lower hybrid frequencies. The density fluctuations due to lower hybrid modes couple with the oscillating velocity due to the pump, and drive the scattered wave. Equations describing the Raman process are derived and effects of various modes are studied on the growth rate analytically. Self generated magnetic field has a strong localization effect on the Raman process and growth rate is maximum for radial eigen mode number q = 0 and azimuthal eigen mode number l = 3. The frequency shift has signatures of self generated magnetic field and could serve as a diagnostic.     

Emission of electromagnetic pulses from laser wakefields through linear mode conversion

Powerful coherent emission around the plasma oscillation frequency can be produced from a laser wakefield through linear mode conversion. This occurs when the laser pulse is incident obliquely to the density gradient of inhomogeneous plasmas. The emission spectrum and conversion efficiency are obtained analytically, which are in agreement with particle-in-cell simulations. The emission can be tuned to be a radiation source in the terahertz region and with field strengths as large as a few GV/m, suitable for high-field applications. The emission also provides a simple way to measure the wakefield produced for particle acceleration.     

Wakefield generation as the mechanism behind spectral shift of a short laser pulse

An equation describing the dynamics of plasma wave generation by a short intense laser pulse is analyzed to find a relation between the difference in mean-square pulse frequency before and after laser-matter interaction and the electric field amplitude in the wakefield plasma wave generated by the laser pulse. This relation can be effectively used in systems for wakefield diagnostics. The relation is applied to several geometries of interaction between a pulse and an ionizing gas or preformed plasma.     

Plasma-wave interaction in helicon plasmas near the lower hybrid frequency

We study the characteristics of plasma-wave interaction in helicon plasmas near the lower hybrid frequency. The (0D) dispersion relation is derived to analyze the properties of the wave propagation and a 1D cylindrical plasma-wave interaction model is established to investigate the power deposition and to implement the parametric analysis. It is concluded that the lower hybrid resonance is the main mechanism of the power deposition in helicon plasmas when the RF frequency is near the lower hybrid frequency and the power deposition mainly concentrates on a very thin layer near the boundary. Therefore, it causes that the plasma resistance has a large local peak near the lower hybrid frequency and the variation of the plasma density and the parallel wavenumber lead to the frequency shifting of the local peaks. It is found that the magnetic field is still proportional to the plasma density for the local maximum plasma resistance and the slope changes due to the transition.     

A New Scheme for High‐Intensity Laser‐Driven Electron Acceleration in a Plasma

We propose a new approach to high‐intensity relativistic laser‐driven electron acceleration in a plasma. Here, we demonstrate that a plasma wave generated by a stimulated forward‐scattering of an incident laser pulse can be in the longest acceleration phase with injected relativistic beam electrons. This is why the plasma wave has the maximum amplification coefficient which is determined by the acceleration time and the breakdown (overturn) electric field in which the acceleration of the injected beam electrons occurs. We must note that for the longest acceleration phase the relativity of the injected beam electrons plays a crucial role in our scheme. We estimate qualitatively the acceleration parameters of relativistic electrons in the field of a plasma wave generated at the stimulated forward‐scattering of a high‐intensity laser pulse in a plasma. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Nondispersive electromagnetic beams in plasmas

We prove that different modes of nondispersive electromagnetic beams can propagate in a stationary isotropic plasma. But, a stationary plasma in a uniform magnetic field may only support a mode at frequencies less than the angular cyclotron frequency.Received: 12 June 2003, Published online: 9 September 2003PACS: 43.20.Bi Mathematical theory of wave propagation - 41.20.Jb Electromagnetic wave propagation; radiowave propagation - 52.35.Hr Electromagnetic waves (e.g., electron-cyclotron, Whistler, Bernstein, upper hybrid, lower hybrid)     

电子等离子体波对超短脉冲激光传播过程的作用

提出等离子体波对光脉冲产生相位调制的观点,把光脉冲在背景等离子体波中传播时的频率移动与脉宽压缩效应统一起来。给出了脉宽演化的方程,它类似于在势阱中运动的经典粒子的能量守恒方程;估算了脉宽压缩对应的等离子体波振幅阈值。数值计算进一步证实这些结论。最后指出实验上用等离子体波压缩短脉冲激光脉宽的可能性。 关键词：