Meeting the challenge of detecting ion plasma waves

Abstract

Ion plasma waves—purely electrostatic ion waves with a wavelength of order of the electron Debye length and frequency of the order of the ion plasma frequency—have long been known in theory but have proven difficult to detect experimentally. The difficulties stemmed from the techniques used to produce the plasma and to drive and detect the waves. In the work reported here, these problems were overcome by using resonant laser scattering to detect ion plasma waves in a multiply ionized, laser-produced plasma. This nonetheless required careful experimental design to minimize frequency smearing of the scattered signal by plasma gradients. The plasma was extensively characterized, allowing comparison of the theoretical dispersion relation with the wave data. The agreement of these two provides conclusive proof of the detection of ion plasma waves.