相对论效应对大振幅电子等离子体振荡破裂影响的数值模拟

通过数值求解符拉索夫方程和泊松方程，研究了相对论效应和温度效应对等离子体振荡破裂的影响. 不考虑相对论效应情况下，初始扰动幅度较小时，不会发生等离子体振荡破裂，系统具有时间周期性. 此时电子温度的增加，会使得等离子体振荡最大幅度减小. 考虑相对论效应时，即使初始的等离子体电子密度扰动幅度不大，随着时间演化，相对论效应也能导致等离子体振荡破裂，而且初始电子密度扰动越小，产生等离子体振荡破裂所需时间越长. 在初始电子密度扰动较大时，无论考虑和不考虑相对论效应都会出现波破裂，但两者的结果有很大不同. 此外温度效应会降低能发生等离子体波破裂的阈值；等离子体波的相速度越大，能产生的波破裂现象也越明显. 关键词： 等离子体振荡 相对论效应 振荡破裂     

Effects of relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities on the interaction of high-power laser beam with an inhomogeneous warm plasma

The influence of relativistic-ponderomotive nonlinearities and the plasma inhomogeneity on the nonlinear interaction between a high-power laser beam and a warm underdense plasma are studied. It is clear that the relativistic ponderomotive force and the electron temperature modify the electron density distribution and consequently change the dielectric permittivity of the plasma. Therefore, by presenting the modified electron density and the nonlinear dielectric permittivity of the warm plasma, the electromagnetic wave equation for the propagation of intense laser beam through the plasma is derived. This nonlinear equation is numerically solved and the distributions of electromagnetic fields in the plasma, the variations of electron density, and plasma refractive index are investigated for two different background electron density profiles. The results show that the amplitude of the electric field and electron density oscillations gradually increase and decrease, during propagation in the inhomogeneous warm plasma with linear and exponential density profiles, respectively, and the distribution of electron density becomes extremely sharp in the presence of intense laser beam. It is also indicated that the electron temperature and initial electron density have an impact on the propagation of the laser beam in the plasma and change the plasma refractive index and the oscillations' amplitude and frequency. The obtained results indicate the importance of a proper choice of laser and plasma parameters on the electromagnetic field distributions, density steepening, and plasma refractive index variations in the interaction of an intense laser beam with an inhomogeneous warm plasma.     

The effect of the laser pulse shape on the wakefield generation in field-ionized plasma

In this paper, the effect of the laser pulse shape on the generation and evolution of the wakefield during the interaction of the intense laser pulse with the gas have been studied utilizing the parallel relativistic PIC simulation code. In order to reach this aim, three pulses with length 300 fs and different rise-times 30, 45, and 60 are typically selected. Our results show that, the amplitude of the laser wakefield produced in the gas in comparison with the plasma strongly depends on the laser pulse shape. The simulation results indicate that for the high-slope laser pulse time (here 30 fs), ionization and thus density fluctuations have no significant effect on the wakefield generation because of rapid increase of the laser electric field. While by increasing the laser pulse rise-time to 45 fs, the rapid wave breaking due to the change in the medium refractive index during the gas ionization, prevents from the wakefield amplitude growth, so that the wakefield with larger amplitude is emerged in the plasma. For a slow-sloping pulse (here 60 fs), the ratio of the wakefield generation in the gas to the plasma is altered for the different gas densities and laser intensities. Moreover, it is represented that the longer the laser pulse rise-time, the sooner difference between the wakefield produced in the gas and plasma is observed. In fact, the larger the rise-time, the greater the density fluctuations and, consequently, the larger the initial noise is generated to seed the Raman instability.     

Frequency shift and pulse compression of an ultrashort pulse in a large-amplitude plasma wave

By calculating the momenta of a coupled set of nonlinear equations of laserpulse-plasma wave interaction in the weak relativistic approximation,the conditions for fre-quency up-shift have been found.That the energy change of the pulse due to frequency shiftis compensated by the change of plasma wave energy results in photon number conservation.Some factors that affect the frequency up-shift are studied.It is also found that the laser pulsecan be compressed when it is located near the valley of plasma density perturbation and ifsome threshold value of the plasma wave field is exceeded.     

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)     

激光等离子体二维相对论电磁粒子模拟

研制了激光等离子体二维相对论电磁粒子模拟程序(2DCIC)。追踪几万甚至百万个模拟粒子在外加激光场和自洽场中运动,自洽地计算电荷和电流密度,求解完全的Maxwel方程,电子的相对论运动方程和离子的牛顿运动方程,辅以灵活的诊断研究波-波,波-粒子相互作用的发生、发展和饱和的细节以及时间演化规律。激光可以正入射,也可以斜入射;等离子体可以是均匀密度,也可以具有密度梯度;为了节约机时,还发展了并行运算。物理模型参数可调,既适用于研究激光聚变等离子体相互作用,也适用于超短脉冲超强激光等离子体相互作用和其它等离子体问题。经过多次试算检验,对等离子体平衡态进行了计算研究,对于超短脉冲超强激光的传播也进行了初步模拟计算。     

Supersonic Shock Wave with Landau Quantization in a Relativistic Degenerate Plasma

A three-dimensional(3D)BurgersJ equation adopting perturbative methodology is derived to study the evolution of a shock wave with Landau quantized magnetic field in relativistic quantum plasma.The characteristics of a shock wave in such a plasma under the influence of magnetic quantization,relativistic parameter and degenerate electron density are studied with assistance of steady state solution.The magnetic field has a noteworthy control,especially on the shock wave's amplitude in the lower range of the electron density,whereas the amplitude in the higher range of the electron density reduces remarkably.The rate of increase of shock wave potential is much higher(lower)with a magnetic Held in the lower(higher)range of electron density.With the relativistic factor,the shock wave's amplitude increases significantly and the rate of increase is higher(lower)for lower(higher)electron density.The combined effect of the increase of relativistic factor and the magnetic field on the strength of the shock wave,results in the highest value of the wave potential in the lower range of the degenerate electron density.     

Nonlinear interaction of ultraintense laser pulse with relativistic thin plasma foil in the radiation pressure-dominant regime

We present a study of the effect of laser pulse temporal profile on the energy /momentum acquired by the ions as a result of the ultraintense laser pulse focussed on a thin plasma layer in the radiation pressure-dominant (RPD) regime. In the RPD regime, the plasma foil is pushed by ultraintense laser pulse when the radiation cannot propagate through the foil, while the electron and ion layers move together. The nonlinear character of laser–matter interaction is exhibited in the relativistic frequency shift, and also change in the wave amplitude as the EM wave gets reflected by the relativistically moving thin dense plasma layer. Relativistic effects in a high-energy plasma provide matching conditions that make it possible to exchange very effectively ordered kinetic energy and momentum between the EM fields and the plasma. When matter moves at relativistic velocities, the efficiency of the energy transfer from the radiation to thin plasma foil is more than 30% and in ultrarelativistic case it approaches one. The momentum /energy transfer to the ions is found to depend on the temporal profile of the laser pulse. Our numerical results show that for the same laser and plasma parameters, a Lorentzian pulse can accelerate ions upto 0.2 GeV within 10 fs which is 1.5 times larger than that a Gaussian pulse can.     

相对论效应对激光在等离子体中的共振吸收的影响

采用一维粒子模拟(PIC)方法，研究了相对论效应对P偏振激光斜入射非均匀等离子体时产生的共振吸收的影响. 计算表明，弱相对论情况下，在临界面附近产生的电子等离子体波的相对论非线性效应占主要作用；随着入射光场的逐渐增大，吸收率逐渐降低. 当入射光强超过3.7×10¹⁷W/cm²时，由于超短激光脉冲本身在等离子体中产生相对论效应、等离子体波破裂效应，以及参量不稳定过程激发等，吸收系数随着激光强度又开始增加. 固定等离子体密度标长，取不同的激光入射角、电子初始温度，相对论效应对吸收系数的影响是一致的. 关键词： 激光等离子体 相对论效应 共振吸收 粒子模拟     

Studies of classical radiation emission from plasma wave undulators

The authors examine the characteristics of the classical radiation emitted by a relativistic electron beam that propagates perpendicularly through a large amplitude relativistic plasma wave. Such a study is useful for evaluating the feasibility of using relativistic plasma waves as extremely short wavelength undulators for generating short wavelength radiation. The electron trajectories in a plasma wave undulator are obtained using perturbation techniques and are then compared to numerical simulation results. The frequency spectrum and angular distribution of the spontaneous radiation emitted by a single electron and the stimulated radiation gain are obtained analytically, and are then compared to 3-D numerical simulations. The characteristics of the plasma wave undulator are compared to the AC free-electron laser (FEL) undulator and the conventional FEL     

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 wakefields in a dielectric structure filled with plasma

The effect of plasma on the amplitude of the wakefield excited in a dielectric structure by a relativistic electron bunch train is studied. The structure under study is a dielectric cylindrical waveguide with an axial drift channel filled with plasma. The dependences of the amplitude of a longitudinal electric field on the plasma density are obtained for the following three cases: the parameters of the dielectric structure and bunches are fixed; the inside or outside radius of the dielectric tube changes according a change in the plasma frequency, and the bunch repetition frequency is adjusted to the plasma frequency and the frequency of the first radial mode of a dielectric wave. It is shown that, when the eigenwave frequencies are adjusted to the bunch repetition frequency via a change in the structure radii, the maximum of the accelerating field is determined by a plasma wave, and there is a plasma density range where a dielectric wave significantly contributes to the total field amplitude. In the case of changing the outside radius, this range is substantially wider.     

Ultrarelativistic excitation of beat waves in a hot magnetized plasma

Summary A theoretical investigation is made on the nonlinear relativistic excitation of an electrostatic electron plasma wave at the beat frequency of two high-power colinear laser beams in a hot, homogeneous and magnetized plasma. The relativistic Vlasov equation expressed in gyrokinetic variables has been employed to find the nonlinear response of the magnetized plasma electrons. It is noted that the power density associated with the excited beat wave is much higher for the relativistic consideration than that for the nonrelativistic consideration. The authors of this paper have agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.     

Stimulated Raman scattering of gaussian laser beam in relativistic plasma

This paper presents an investigation of Stimulated Raman Scattering of gaussian laser beam in relativistic Plasma. The pump beam interacts with a pre-excited electron plasma wave and thereby generate a back-scattered wave. Due to intense laser beam, electron oscillatory velocity becomes comparable to the velocity of light, which modifies the background plasma density profile in a direction transverse to pump beam axis. The relativistic non-linearity due to increase in mass of the electrons effects the incident laser beam, electron plasma wave and back-scattered beam. We have set up the non-linear differential equations for the beam width parameters of the main beam, electron plasma wave, back-scattered wave and derived SRS back-reflectivity by taking full non-linear part of the dielectric constant of relativistic plasma with the help of moment theory approach. It is observed from the analysis that self-focusing of the pump beam greatly affects the SRS reflectivity, which plays a significant role in laser induced fusion.     

Laser — induced modulation of the refractive index of a plasma

High intensity laser irradiation of a plasma can accelerate the electrons to relativistic velocities. For circularly polarized light the refractive index,n, of the collisionless plasma is then a time-independent function of laser and plasma frequency as well as laser peak intensity; but for linearly polarized light,n (i.e., the wave or phase velocity of the wave in units of the speed of light in vacuum) also becomes a periodic function of time. The deeper the wave penetrates the plasma the higher becomes the multiplicity of values ofn. This means that the laser radiation transforms inside the plasma into several nonlinear waves with periodically changing phase velocities.Work supported in part by Brazilian Research Council (CNPq) and presented under the title 'Refractive Index of a Plasma' at the 11th European Conference on Laser Interaction with Matter, Oxford, England, 19–23 September 1977.     

Propagation dynamics of relativistic electromagnetic solitary wave as well as modulational instability in plasmas

By one-dimensional particle-in-cell(PIC) simulations, the propagation and stability of relativistic electromagnetic(EM) solitary waves as well as modulational instability of plane EM waves are studied in uniform cold electron-ion plasmas.The investigation not only confirms the solitary wave motion characteristics and modulational instability theory, but more importantly, gives the following findings. For a simulation with the plasma density 10²³ m^-3 and the dimensionless vector potential amplitude 0.18, it is found that the EM solitary wave can stably propagate when the carrier wave frequency is smaller than 3.83 times of the plasma frequency. While for the carrier wave frequency larger than that, it can excite a very weak Langmuir oscillation, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the transverse electron momentum and may in turn modulate the EM solitary wave and cause the modulational instability, so that the solitary wave begins to deform after a long enough distance propagation. The stable propagation distance before an obvious observation of instability increases(decreases) with the increase of the carrier wave frequency(vector potential amplitude). The study on the plane EM wave shows that a modulational instability may occur and its wavenumber is approximately equal to the modulational wavenumber by Langmuir oscillation and is independent of the carrier wave frequency and the vector potential amplitude.This reveals the role of the Langmuir oscillation excitation in the inducement of modulational instability and also proves the modulational instability of EM solitary wave.     

Electron Acceleration by Beating of Two Intense Cross-Focused Hollow Gaussian Laser Beams in Plasma

This paper presents propagation of two cross-focused intense hollow Gaussian laser beams(HGBs) in collisionless plasma and its effect on the generation of electron plasma wave(EPW) and electron acceleration process,when relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities are simultaneously operative. Nonlinear differential equations have been set up for beamwidth of laser beams, power of generated EPW, and energy gain by electrons using WKB and paraxial approximations. Numerical simulations have been carried out to investigate the effect of typical laser-plasma parameters on the focusing of laser beams in plasmas and further its effect on power of excited EPW and acceleration of electrons. It is observed that focusing of two laser beams in plasma increases for higher order of hollow Gaussian beams,which significantly enhanced the power of generated EPW and energy gain. The amplitude of EPW and energy gain by electrons is found to enhance with an increase in the intensity of laser beams and plasma density. This study will be useful to plasma beat wave accelerator and in other applications requiring multiple laser beams.     

激光聚焦扰动作用下高超声速边界层稳定性实验研究

在马赫数6、单位雷诺数3.1×10⁶/m的条件下对半锥角7°直圆锥边界层稳定性开展了实验研究.以激光聚焦于流场中局部空间而产生的膨胀冲击波作为人工添加的小扰动,分析了该扰动对高超声速圆锥边界层流动稳定性的影响.实验中利用响应频率达到兆赫兹量级的高频压力传感器对圆锥壁面脉动压力进行测量,通过对压力数据进行短时傅里叶分析和功率谱分析发现,相比于不添加激光聚焦扰动的结果,添加激光聚焦扰动使边界层中第二模态波的出现位置提前,且扰动波的幅值大幅度地增加,在相同的流向范围内,激光聚焦扰动将边界层中的扰动波从线性发展阶段推进到非线性发展阶段,其对边界层中扰动波发展的促进效果明显.同时,激光聚焦位置的不同对边界层中扰动波的发展也具有不同的影响.当激光直接聚焦于圆锥壁面X=100 mm位置时,边界层中频率为90 kHz的扰动波幅值增长最快,在X=500 mm的位置处其幅值放大倍数为3.81,相比而言当激光聚焦位置位于圆锥前方自由来流中时,边界层幅值增长最快的扰动波频率大幅减小为73 kHz,相同范围内,其幅值放大倍数为4.51倍.由此可见,当激光聚焦位置位于圆锥上游的自由来流中时,其对边界层中扰动波的影响更为显著.     

高强度激光与等离子体相互作用中的受激Raman级联散射、光子凝聚以及大振幅电磁孤立子的产生与加速

应用一维相对论电磁粒子模拟程序，详细研究了线性极化强激光入射到无碰撞稀疏密度长等离子体中引起的受激Raman散射、Raman级联散射、级联散射到光子凝聚、以及大振幅电磁孤立子的产生与加速. 通过研究发现：在适当的激光振幅和等离子体状态下，强的光子凝聚现象会导致大振幅电磁孤立子的产生，电磁孤立子可以以静止、向后以及向前加速的形式存在；在密度均匀的等离子体中，电磁孤立子的加速不仅依赖于激光振幅而且依赖于等离子体的长度；电磁孤立子的电磁频率大约为未扰动电子等离子体振荡频率的二分之一左右，孤立子内电磁场的电场具有半周期结构，相应电磁场的磁场以及静电场则具有一个完整的周期结构. 关键词： 粒子模拟 受激Raman散射 Raman级联散射 光子凝聚 电磁孤立子     

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.