Propagation of ion-acoustic waves in a dusty plasma with non-isothermal electrons

For an unmagnetised collisionless plasma consisting of warm ions, nonisothermal electrons and cold, massive and charged dust grains, the Sagdeev potential equation, considering both ion dynamics and dust dynamics has been derived. It has been observed that the Sagdeev potential V(ϕ) exists only for ϕ > 0 up to an upper limit (ϕ ≃ 1.2). This implies the possibility of existence of compressive solitary wave in the plasma. Exhaustive numerics done for both the large-amplitude and small-amplitude ion-acoustic waves have revealed that various parameters, namely, ion temperature, non-isothermality of electrons, Mach numbers etc. have considerable impact on the amplitude as well as the width of the solitary waves. Dependence of soliton profiles on the ion temperature and the Mach number has also been graphically displayed. Moreover, incorporating dust-charge fluctuation and non-isothermality of electrons, a non-linear equation relating the grain surface potential to the electrostatic potential has been derived. It has been solved numerically and interdependence of the two potentials for various ion temperatures and orders of non-isothermality has been shown graphically.      

Transition radiation of fast electrons as a broadband vacuum-ultraviolet radiation source

The characteristics of a possible radiation source in the vacuum-ultraviolet and soft X-ray range based on the transition radiation of electrons with an energy of about 100 keV are calculated. The possibilities of enhancing the radiation yield in the geometry of the glancing interaction of electrons with a target are analyzed. The possibility of creating a source with a yield on the order of 10^?5 photon/(eV sr) per electron is demonstrated.     

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.     

Amplification of ion-acoustic turbulence upon electron-cyclotron heating of plasma

In this paper, we present the results of the study of ion-acoustic turbulence upon electron-cyclotron heating of low-temperature plasma in a TAU-1 model setup. Two MI-167 magnetrons were used as microwave sources. The peak power of each magnetron was 1 kW, the pulse duration was 7.5 μs. An increase in the temperature of most electrons and an increase in the energy of nonthermal electrons were observed in experiments. Microwave field turning-on caused an increase by an order of magnitude in the spectral density of ion-acoustic noise in the entire frequency range from 0.3 to 3 MHz under study.     

Fast heating of cylindrically imploded plasmas by petawatt laser light

We produced cylindrically imploded plasmas, which have the same density-radius product of the imploded plasma rhoR with the compressed core in the fast ignition experiment and demonstrated efficient fast heating of cylindrically imploded plasmas with an ultraintense laser light. The coupling efficiency from the laser to the imploded column was 14%-21%, implying strong collimation of energetic electrons over a distance of 300 microm of the plasma. Particle-in-cell simulation shows confinement of the energetic electrons by self-generated magnetic and electrostatic fields excited along the imploded plasmas, and the efficient fast heating in the compressed region.     

不同偏振态下的飞秒激光脉冲与铝靶相互作用中超热电子的产生

研究了P偏振、S偏振和圆(C)偏振态下亚相对论强度飞秒激光脉冲与铝靶相互作用时产生的超热电子的能谱和靶背向角分布，并对S偏振产生的超热电子的特殊角分布通过引入表面磁场的概念进行了定性解释. 关键词： 超短超强激光 等离子体 超热电子 表面磁场     

Modulational instability of relativistic ion-acoustic waves in aplasma with trapped electrons

The association between the modified Korteweg-de Vries solitary wave and the modulationally unstable envelope solitary wave in a weakly relativistic unmagnetized plasma with trapped electrons is discussed. The effect of trapped electrons modifies the nonlinearity of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation and gives rise to the propagation of the modulationally unstable ion-acoustic solitary wave. The amplitude of the envelope solitary wave increases while the number of trapped electrons decreases. The velocity of the solitary wave decreases with increasing ionic temperature and increasing particle velocities. The ion oscillation mode, which satisfies the nonlinear dispersion relation, is also derived. The theory is applied to explain space observations of the solar energetic flows in interplanetary space and of the energetic particle events in the Earth's magnetosphere     

Unstable mode of ion-acoustic waves with two temperature q-nonextensive distributed electrons

The linear characteristics of the unstable mode of ion-acoustic waves are examined in an electrostatic electron-ion plasma composed of streaming hot electrons, non-streaming cold electrons and dynamical positive ions. The plasma under consideration is modeled by using a non-gyrotropic nonextensive q-distribution function in which the free energy source for wave excitation is provided by the relative directed motion of streaming hot electrons with respect to the other plasma species. In the frame work of kinetic model, a linearized set of Vlasov–Poisson's equations are solved to obtain the analytical expressions for dispersion relation and Landau damping rate. The threshold condition for the unstable ionacoustic wave is derived to assess the stability of the wave in the presence of nonextensive effects. Growth in the wave spectrum and nontrivial effects of q-nonextensive parameter on the ion-acoustic waves can be of interest for the readers in the regions of Saturns' s magnetosphere.     

Potential possibilities of a laser plasma as a negative-ion source

The potential possibilities of a plasma heated by laser radiation as a negative-ion source are analyzed theoretically. It is shown that the efficiency of negative-ion formation in a laser plasma in the heating phase reaches 10¹⁵−10¹⁶ ions/J when the parameters of the laser radiation are optimally adjusted. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67, 117–120 (July 1997)     

Coronal mass ejections as a possible source of energetic electrons in interplanetary space

We study the relationship between coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and the increase in the intensity of energetic (E_e>0.3 MeV) electrons in interplanetary space (IS). For analysis we used the data on the CME observations from P78-1 satellite and the events in solar energetic particles (SEP) from the Helios 1, 2, ISEE 3, and Venera 13, 14 spacecrafts in the period from 1979 to 1983. Nine SEP events were observed simultaneously at different points of the IS. We found that the time T_mn from the beginning of the solar perturbation to the maximum of energetic electron intensity J_mn, as well as the intensity J_mn itself, are statistically related to the CME velocity, and this relation is characterized by the correlation factor R ～0.6 to 0.9 for different samples of events. The correlation factors J_mn with the amplitude of thermal X-ray (X_t) radiation of flares do not exceed ～0.5 to 0.6 for the same samples. The results of the statistical approach indicate acceleration of energetic electrons at coronal shock waves initiated by CMEs.     

Plasma oscillations of massless Dirac electrons in a planar superlattice

The spectrum of plasma oscillations in a lateral superlattice of massless Dirac electrons has been calculated in the weak coupling approximation. The intensity of absorption of electromagnetic waves by plasmons of the superlattice at frequencies near the edges of band gaps has been found.     

Head-on collision of ion-acoustic solitary waves in a Thomas-Fermi plasma containing degenerate electrons and positrons

Head-on collision between two ion acoustic solitary waves in a Thomas-Fermi plasma containing degenerate electrons and positrons is investigated using the extended Poincaré-Lighthill-Kuo (PLK) method. The results show that the phase shifts due to the collision are strongly dependent on the positron-to-electron number density ratio, the electron-to-positron Fermi temperature ratio and the ion-to-electron Fermi temperature ratio. The present study might be helpful to understand the excitation of nonlinear ion-acoustic solitary waves in a degenerate plasma such as in superdense white dwarfs.     

Nonplanar dust ion-acoustic solitary and shock waves in a dusty plasma with electrons following a vortex-like distribution

Properties of nonplanar (viz. cylindrical and spherical) dust ion-acoustic (DIA) solitary and shock waves propagating in a dusty plasma containing charge fluctuating stationary dust, inertial warm ions, and non-isothermal electrons following a vortex-like distribution, are investigated by the reductive perturbation method. It has been shown that all the basic features of the DIA solitary and shock waves are significantly modified by the effects of vortex-like electron distribution, dust charge fluctuation, and nonplanar cylindrical and spherical geometries. The implications of our results in some space and laboratory dusty plasma environments are briefly discussed.     

Discharge initiation in a hollow-cathode plasma source of electrons

Experimental results on discharge initiation in a hollow-cathode plasma source of electrons are reported. The discharge is initiated by ions flowing out from the accelerating gap into the discharge region. The ions are generated by a high-voltage glowing discharge occurring in the accelerating gap at a pressure of more than 2 Pa and a voltage of no less than 2 kV. It is shown that an increase in the ion-electron emission coefficient, which can be raised by properly choosing the gas-metal pair, decreases the threshold ion current initiating the discharge at a fixed discharge voltage.     

Fast wavelength-tunable ultra-violet laser source for confocal Fura-2AM imaging

We report a novel wavelength-flexible laser source for three-dimensional ultra-violet imaging. Based on supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber, the resultant broadband laser source extended from λ = 331 nm into the visible region of the spectrum. Using an electronically-controlled filter wheel and filter set with a response time of approximately 50 ms, rapid wavelength selection was performed. The described scheme is capable of exciting the current range of ultra-violet-excited fluorophores and the simple and rapid wavelength control also provides a new approach for fast ratiometric imaging of Fura-2AM, facilitating an easy method of performing quantitative intracellular calcium concentration measurements.