Decay Instability of the Ion Acoustic Wave

Abstract

The parametric excitation of the longitudinal, plasma mode and the transverse, electromagnetic mode in a warm, uniform plasma is investigated for the case in which the pump wave is another electromagnetic mode. The three interacting waves are assumed to propagate in the same direction. The longitudinal mode has two branches, namely, the electron plasma mode and the ion plasma mode. The parametric coupling of the longitudinal and the transverse waves in the presence of the pump wave leads to instabilities of the interacting waves. Illustrative numerical results are presented for the parametric instabilities of the electron plasma oscillation which is a part of the electron plasma mode and those of the ion acoustic waves and the ion plasma oscillations which are parts of the ion plasma mode. The ion acoustic wave is efficiently excited when the pump and the idler wave frequencies are approximately equal to one and a half times the electron plasma frequency.