The laser–plasma interaction: A bibliometric study

Abstract

This study focuses on the review of present and future research directions in the field of laser–plasma interaction by using bibliometric analysis. Data sources in this study are collected from the WoS core collection database. A total of 2650 documents from 1990 to 2022 are analyzed. Author keywords, countries/regions, highly-cited articles and scholars, fruitful journals and productive institutions are discussed in detail. Results indicate that in terms of the volume of published documents, research institutes and related journals in this area, the USA is the leading country, followed by China, France and the UK. Furthermore, the USA has the highest number of publications and is the most frequently cited country in the world. Also, Physics of Plasmas, published by the AIP, holds the first rank among journals in terms of papers published and most global cited documents in laser–plasma interaction research. Moreover, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, USA, is the most productive institution. Furthermore, biometric analysis reveals the growth rate of related articles in this field that has been somewhat stable and in recent years, investigations by scholars are mostly focused on simulation with programming (e.g., Particle-In-Cell (PIC) codes), studying the effects of electric and magnetic fields, laser–plasma dynamics, ion-acceleration and laser-driven plasma accelerators.