Self-focusing of a Gaussian electromagnetic beam in a multi-ions plasma

Abstract

In this paper, the authors have developed a formulation for the dependence of electron and ion densities on the irradiance of an electromagnetic beam in a plasma with multiply charged ions, corresponding to collisional, ponderomotive, and relativistic-ponderomotive nonlinearities and different electron/ion temperatures; consequently, the corresponding expressions for the electron density modification in the presence of an electromagnetic (em) field have been derived. Paraxial approach in the vicinity of intensity maximum has been adopted to analyze the propagation characteristics of an em beam in such plasmas; on the basis of this analysis, critical curves and self-focusing curves have been computed numerically and graphically illustrated. For a numerical appreciation of the analysis, we have specifically carried out the computations for the simultaneous presence of singly and doubly charged ions in the plasma. As an important outcome, it is seen that the nonlinear effects (and hence self-focusing) get suppressed in the presence of multiply ionized ions; the conditions for the three modes of em-beam propagation viz. oscillatory focusing/defocusing and steady divergence have been discussed.