Collective modes of plasma formed by multiphoton ionization of rarefied gas

Abstract

High-frequency collective modes in plasma with strongly anisotropic velocity distribution of photoelectrons formed by multiphoton or above-threshold ionization of gas atoms are studied. In the case of multiphoton ionization, along with the usual electromagnetic wave, there are two additional modes. In the region of large wavelengths, the higher-frequency mode is similar to the electron Langmuir wave. Its group velocity is mainly determined by the average photoelectron velocity, and Cherenkov damping is due to small velocity dispersion of photoelectron distribution. In the region of short waves, but with a small Cherenkov damping, the group and phase velocities of this wave are close to the average electron velocity. The second mode, which has lower frequency, in the region of wavelengths smaller than the ratio of average electron velocity to the plasma frequency, corresponds to quasi-potential wave. Its dispersion law is close to the linear one. In contrast, in the region of large wavelengths, this mode corresponds to aperiodic instability, the maximum growth rate of which is comparable to the plasma frequency. The distribution of photoelectrons formed during above-threshold ionization is characterized by the large number of energy peaks, which is accompanied by increasing in the number of collective modes. In particular, in plasma with photoelectron distribution which has two energy peaks, in addition to the electromagnetic mode four extra modes are possible. In the shortwave region, all four modes correspond to the waves that are damped due to Cherenkov interaction with photoelectrons. Two of these modes in the region of relatively long wavelengths are unstable. One of these unstable modes corresponds to quasi-potential wave whose amplitude aperiodically increases with time. The reason for the instabilities is the presence of counter streams of photoelectrons.