Response of a bounded plasma to ultrashort pulse excitation

Abstract

The response of a bounded plasma to an incident ultrashort pulse is investigated for a symmetrical 3-D case by using a Green's function technique. For a spherically distributed source the external field generated by the plasma oscillations, induced by the incident pulse, are studied analytically. A modification of the collision frequency is introduced as a consequence of the ultrashort time duration of the wave packet. The possibility of using ultrashort pulses for diagnostic purposes in connection with laser-fusion experiments is emphasized.