Excitation of plasma waves by an externally applied electromagnetic wave to a nonuniform classical plasma

Radiation-driven plasma wave equations (RWE's) are derived from the basic dynamical plasma equations through restaining the external radiation source terms and significant nonlinear terms under the simplified assumptions used by Zakharov 1]. Excitation processes of the transverse plasma waves, Langmuir waves by an externally applied electromagnetic wave to a nonuniform unmagnetized plasma are investigated by means of rough numerical simulations based on RWE's. The results show that the amplitude of the transverse plasma waves is sensitive to their effective damping rate and that the radiation-induced density profile modification looks like a step, which are in qualitative agreement with analytical results.Published in Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 39, No. 8, pp. 959–987, August, 1996.One of the authors (Li) wishes to thank V.L. Ginzburg, E. Mjølhus, B. Thidé, N.S. Erokhin, J.Y. Liu, J.W. Lee, T.D. Carozzi, and J. Bergman for helpful oral discussions on this topic. Li also wants to thank M. Matsuoka for the kind hospitality during his year-long stay at RIKEN, where this work was completed.