Phonons with orbital angular momentum

Abstract

Ion accoustic waves or phonon modes are studied with orbital angular momentum (OAM) in an unmagnetized collissionless uniform plasma, whose constituents are the Boltzmann electrons and inertial ions. For this purpose, we have employed the fluid equations to obtain a paraxial equation in terms of ion density perturbations and discussed its Gaussian beam and Laguerre-Gauss (LG) beam solutions. Furthermore, an approximate solution for the electrostatic potential problem is presented, allowing to express the components of the electric field in terms of LG potential perturbations. The energy flux due to phonons is also calculated and the corresponding OAM is derived. Numerically, it is shown that the parameters such as azimuthal angle, radial and angular mode numbers, and beam waist, strongly modify the profiles of the phonon LG potential. The present results should be helpful in understanding the phonon mode excitations produced by Brillouin backscattering of laser beams in a uniform plasma.