Hot carrier diffusion induced instabilities of electromagnetic waves in plasmas and semiconductors

The stability of a plasma/semiconductor for small fluctuations in the intensity of plane electromagnetic beam has been studied when a non-linearity in the dielectric constant appears on account of the diffusion of non-uniformly heated carriers (due to fluctuations in the intensity of the beam). Fluctuations of optimum size and long duration have been found to grow at moderate powers. The effect of absorption is, however, to suppress this effect.Work supported by CSIR (India) and NSF (USA)     

Kinetic ion-acoustic solitary waves in collisional plasmas

In this study, a bipolar high-voltage pulse with 20 ns rising time is employed to generate diffuse dielectric barrier discharge plasma using wire-plate electrode configuration in nitrogen at atmospheric pressure. The gas temperature of the plasma is determined by comparing the experimental and the best fitted optical emission spectra of the second positive bands of N₂(C³Π_u → B³ Π_g, 0-2) and the first negative bands of N₂ ⁺ (B² Σ_u ⁺ → X² Σ_g ⁺, 0-0). The effects of the concentration of argon and oxygen on the emission intensities of N₂ (C³Π_u → B³Π_g, 0-0, 337.1 nm), OH?(A ²Σ → X²Π, 0-0) and N₂ ⁺ (B² Σ_u ⁺ → X² Σ_g ⁺, 0-0, 391.4 nm) are investigated. It is shown that the plasma gas temperature keeps almost constant with the pulse repetition rate and pulse peak voltage increasing. The emission intensities of N₂ (C³Π_u → B³Π_g, 0-0, 337.1 nm), OH(A²Σ → X²Π, 0-0) and N₂ ⁺ (B² Σ_u ⁺ → X² Σ_g ⁺, 0-0, 391.4 nm) rise with increasing the concentration of argon, but decrease with increasing the concentration of oxygen, and the influences of oxygen concentration on the emission intensities of N₂(C³Π_u → B³Π_g, 0-0, 337.1 nm) and OH (A²Σ → X²Π, 0-0) are more greater than that on the emission intensity of N₂ ⁺ (B² Σ_u ⁺ → X² Σ_g ⁺, 0-0, 391.4 nm).     

Penetration of waves into semi-infinite collisional plasmas

Penetration of longitudinal and transverse fields into a semi-infinite collisional plasma with fractionally accommodating boundary, having specular and diffuse reflecions is studied. The penetration of longitudinal field was studied by Landau and recently by Mason which was extended for transverse waves by Gupta and Varma. The theory is extended for collisions between electrons and ions according to B.G.K. Model, and its resemblence with metals for electrons and holes, gives its practical significance. The reflection coefficients and surface impedence are observed. The results are compared with non-collisional cases and it is observed that depth of penetration for collisional plasma decreases.     

Large-amplitude electromagnetic waves in relativistic plasmas

The propagation of linearly polarized large-amplitude electromagnetic waves in relativistic plasmas is studied in the framework of the Akhiezer-Polovin-model. Different forms of the basic equations are reviewed and important solutions are presented for small and critical plasma densities. The well-known periodic solutions are generalized to quasiperiodic solutions taking account of additional electrostatic oscillations.     

Self-reflection of intense electromagnetic waves in plasmas

A uniform electromagnetic wave of high power density, propagating in a collisional plasma gives rise to a modification in temperature-dependent collision frequency and in turn induces a gradient in the complex refractive index of the medium. A WKB solution of the problem predicts a backward propagating wave on account of the self-induced inhomogeneity. The amplitude of the backward (i.e. reflected) wave increases with increasing power density of the wave. This is a volume nonlinear effect and is appreciable for usually employed power densities.     

Interaction of electromagnetic waves with anisotropic collisional plasma half space

Interaction of electromagnetic waves penetrating into anisotropic semi-infinite collisional plasma embedded in a uniform external magnetic field is studied using half range Fourier transforms. General field equations are developed for fractionally accommodating boundary and a particular case of specular reflection is discussed both for right handed as well as left handed circularly polarized modes. Anisotropy effects are found to be more prominent in the continuum mode of field component. Anisotropy as well as collisions make the field to attain a constant value at a shorter distance. Left handed polarized modes are found to be more penetrating than right handed modes. Surface impedance is calculated and effects of collisions as well as anisotropy are discussed.     

Nonlinear propagation of fast and slow magnetosonic waves in collisional plasmas

Low-frequency fast and slow magnetosonic waves propagating in electron ion plasmas with damping effects through ions and neutral atoms collisions are investigated. Linear wave analysis is performed to obtain dispersion relation. The reductive perturbation method is applied and it is shown that fast and slow modes of nonlinear magnetosonic wave are governed by damped Korteweg-de Vries (DKdV) equation in the presence of ion neutral collisions in plasmas. The analytical solution of DKdV soliton is presented under the assumption of weak collisional effects and numerical solutions of DKdV equation are also obtained using two-level finite difference scheme with the help of Runge–Kutta method at different plasma parameters. The damping of nonlinear fast and slow magnetosonic wave structures at different times are discussed in the context of space plasma situations where ions and neutral atoms collisions exist.     

Filamentation instability in two counter-streaming laser plasmas

The filamentation instability was observed in the interaction of two counter-streaming laser ablated plasma flows,which were supersonic, collisionless, and also closely relevant to astrophysical conditions. The plasma flows were created by irradiating a pair of oppositely standing plastic(CH) foils with 1ns-pulsed laser beams of total energy of 1.7 k J in two laser spots. With characteristics diagnosed in experiments, the calculated features of Weibel-type filaments are in good agreement with measurements.     

Filamentation and jets in line-focused laser-produced plasmas

In line-focused laser-produced plasma experiments on planar and cylindrical targets, we have observed the line-focused laser beam breakup into filaments as well as small-scale plasma jet-like structures. These phenomena might become obstacles in achieving optimum X-ray lasing in the type of experiments using line-focused laser-produced plasmas as a gain medium.     

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提出碰撞吸收型等离子体的等效折射指数,重新计算了折射角,并与利用常规方法得到的折射角进行了比较。分析了等离子体密度和碰撞频率对折射角的影响。考察了斜入射电磁波在吸收型等离子体中的折射特性,并以一维非均匀碰撞吸收型等离子体为例,对斜入射电磁波的反射特性进行了考察。结果表明,等效折射指数的概念涵盖了入射角度的影响,在考察斜入射时更准确、便捷。     

Stimulated Brillouin scattering of obliquely propagatingextraordinary electromagnetic waves off ion-Bernstein waves in plasmas

The parametric decay of an obliquely propagating extraordinary electromagnetic wave into another extraordinary electromagnetic wave and a low-frequency electrostatic ion-Berstein wave via the stimulated Brillouin scattering process is considered. Explicit expressions for the growth rate and threshold power for this instability are presented. Applications of the present investigation to fusion plasmas in the end cells of tandem mirrors and the magnetospheric and ionospheric plasmas to explain wave phenomena are pointed out. The dependence of threshold power on the pump wave angle is studied. The general expressions for the growth rate and threshold derived here can also be useful to explain future experimental data     

Polarization change of high-frequency electromagnetic waves in magnetically sheared plasmas

Summary The polarization change of an electromagnetic wave passing through a magnetized plasma turns out to be of renewed interest because of the possibility, offered by polarimetry measurements in the infrared range of frequencies, of determining the current density profile for a tokamak plasma. Because of magnetic shear, acting as a coupling parameter between the characteristic modes, the fraction of energy in each mode is not a constant, and a non-WKB treatment is necessary in order to describe the evolution of the wave polarization. The present work shows that this evolution, together with the one of the mode energy, is described by a set of four first-order differential equations. The solutions of this system are discussed in the general case, and in significant limiting cases. Work performed under JET Contract     

Self-induced resonant absorption of intense electromagnetic waves in inhomogeneous plasmas

Strongly enhanced absorption of normally incident electromagnetic waves can temporarily occur due to the deformation of the plasma density profile produced by the ponderomotive force. Experimental results of Barinov et al. can be explained.     

Relativistic harmonic content of nonlinear electromagnetic waves inunderdense plasmas

The relativistic harmonic content of large-amplitude electromagnetic waves propagating in underdense plasmas is investigated. The steady-state harmonic content of nonlinear linearly polarized waves is calculated for both the very underdense (w_p/w ₀)≪1 and critical density (w_p/w₀)≃1 limits. For weak nonlinearities, eE₀/mcω₀<1, the nonlinear source term for the third harmonic is derived for arbitrary w_p/w₀. Arguments are given for extending these results for arbitrary wave amplitudes. It is also shown that the use of the variable x-ct and the quasi-static approximation leads to errors in both magnitude and sign when calculating the third harmonic. In the absence of damping or density gradients the third harmonic's amplitude is found to oscillate between zero and twice the steady-state value. Preliminary PIC simulation results are presented. The simulation results are in basic agreement with the uniform plasma predictions for the third-harmonic amplitude. However, the higher harmonics are orders of magnitude larger than expected and the presence of density ramps significantly modifies the results     

White-light parametric instabilities in plasmas

Parametric instabilities driven by partially coherent radiation in plasmas are described by a generalized statistical Wigner-Moyal set of equations, formally equivalent to the full wave equation, coupled to the plasma fluid equations. A generalized dispersion relation for stimulated Raman scattering driven by a partially coherent pump field is derived, revealing a growth rate dependence, with the coherence width sigma of the radiation field, scaling with 1/sigma for backscattering (three-wave process), and with 1/sigma1/2 for direct forward scattering (four-wave process). Our results demonstrate the possibility to control the growth rates of these instabilities by properly using broadband pump radiation fields.     

Mechanical forces and torques associated with electromagnetic waves

Mechanical forces and torques associated with electromagnetic waves impinging on several objects are computed. The incoming radiation can be linearly or circularly polarized, thus carrying linear and angular momenta. The objects are matched dipoles in several configurations and a metal sphere. Numerous interesting results are obtained.     

Two-stream instabilities in degenerate quantum plasmas

The quantum effects on the plasma two-stream instability are studied by the dielectric function approach. The analysis suggests that the instability condition in a degenerate dense plasma deviates from the classical theory when the electron drift velocity is comparable to the Fermi velocity. Specifically, for a high wave vector comparable to the Fermi wave vector, a degenerate quantum plasma has larger regime of instability than predicted by the classical theory. A regime is identified, where there are unstable plasma waves with frequency 1.5 times of a normal Langmuir wave.