Laser Beam In Collisionless Plasma Research Articles

Second Harmonic Generation of Self Focused Cosh‐Gaussian Laser Beam in Collisionless Plasma

AbstractThis paper presents an investigation of self‐focusing of a Cosh‐Gaussian (ChG) laser beam and its effect on second harmonic generation in collisionless plasma. In the presence of ChG laser beam the carriers get redistributed from high field region to low field region on account of ponderomotive force as a result of which a transverse density gradient is produced in the plasma which in turn generates an electron‐plasma wave at pump frequency. Generated plasma wave interacts with the incident laser beam and hence generates its second harmonics. Moment theory has been used to derive differential equation governing the evolution of spot size of ChG laser beam propagating through collisionless plasma. The differential equation so obtained has been solved numerically. The effect of decentered parameter, intensity of ChG laser beam and density of plasma on self‐focusing of the laser beam and second harmonic yield has been investigated. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Effect of self-focused rippled laser beam on the excitation of ion acoustic wave in relativistic ponderomotive regime

AbstractThis paper presents an investigation of self-focusing of intense Gaussian rippled laser beam in collisionless plasma by including the nonlinearity associated with the relativistic mass and the ponderomotive force and its effects on the excitation of ion acoustic wave. The growth of ripple, riding on an intense Gaussian laser beam in plasma and its coupling with ion acoustic wave has also been studied. Modified coupled equations for main laser beam, growth of laser ripple in plasma, rippled laser beam, beam width, and density perturbation associated with ion acoustic wave are derived using Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin and paraxial ray approximation. These coupled equations are solved analytically and numerically to study the laser intensity in plasma and the variation of amplitude of the ion acoustic wave for various established laser and plasma parameters. From numerical computation, it is observed that both nonlinearities significantly affected the dynamics of the growth of laser ripple in plasma, propagation of rippled laser beam as well as ion acoustic wave in plasma at high laser power flux. The growth of laser ripple increase with increase in the intensity of laser beam and due to the contribution of growth rate, intensity profile of rippled laser beam and ion acoustic wave modified accordingly.

Growth of ring ripple in a collisionless plasma in relativistic-ponderomotive regime and its effect on stimulated Raman backscattering process

A theoretical and numerical study has been made of the propagation of a ring rippled laser beam in collisionless plasma with dominant relativistic ponderomotive nonlinearity and its effect on the excitation of electron plasma wave and stimulated Raman backscattering process. The growth of ring ripple, riding on an intense Gaussian laser beam in plasma has also been studied. A paraxial-ray and WKB approximation has been invoked to understand the nature of propagation of the ring rippled Gaussian laser beam in plasma, electron plasma wave and back reflectivity under the influence of both nonlinearities. The growth rate and focusing of a ring rippled beam is found to be considerably affected by the power of the main beam and the phase angle between the electric vectors of the main beam and the ring ripple. It has also been observed that the focusing is released by the coupling of relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities, which significantly affected the dynamics of the excitation of electron plasma wave and back reflectivity of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). Due to the strong coupling between ring rippled laser beam and the excited electron plasma wave, back reflectivity of SRS is enhanced. It has been observed from the computational results that the effect of the increased intensity leads to suppression of SRS back reflectivity. The results have been presented for established laser and plasma parameters.

Turning point temperature and competition between relativistic and ponderomotive effects in self-focusing of laser beam in plasma

The propagation characters of Gaussian laser beam in collisionless plasma are investigated by considering the ponderomotive and relativistic nonlinearities. The second-order differential equation of dimensionless beam width parameter is solved numerically, taking into account the effect of electron temperature. The results show that the ponderomotive force does not facilitate the relativistic self-focusing in all intensity ranges. In fact, there exists a certain intensity value that, if below this value, the ponderomotive nonlinearity can contribute to the relativistic self-focusing, or obstruct it, if above. It is also indicated that there is a temperature interval in which self-focusing can occur, while the beam diverges outside of this region. In addition, the results represent the existence of a “turning point temperature” in the mentioned interval that the self-focusing has the strongest power. The value of the turning point is dependent on laser intensity in which higher intensities result in higher turning point.

Self-focusing of Gaussian laser beam in collisionless plasma and its effect on stimulated Raman scattering process

This paper presents an investigation of self-focusing of Gaussian laser beam in collisionless plasma and its effect on stimulated Raman scattering process. The pump beam interacts with a pre-excited electron plasma wave thereby generating a back-scattered wave. On account of Gaussian intensity distribution of laser beam, the time independent component of the ponderomotive force along a direction perpendicular to the beam propagation becomes finite, which modifies the background plasma density profile in a direction transverse to pump beam axis. This modification in density affects the incident laser beam, electron plasma wave and back-scattered beam. We have set up the non-linear differential equations for the beam width parameters of the main beam, electron plasma wave, back-scattered wave and SRS-reflectivity by taking full non-linear part of the dielectric constant of collisionless plasma with the help of moment theory approach. It is observed from the analysis that focusing of waves greatly enhances the SRS reflectivity.

Self-focusing of Gaussian laser beam in collisionless plasma and its effect on stimulated Brillouin scattering process

This paper presents an investigation of self-focusing of Gaussian laser beam in collisionless plasma and its effect on stimulated Brillouin scattering process. The pump beam interacts with a pre-excited ion-acoustic wave thereby generating a back-scattered wave. On account of Gaussian intensity distribution of laser beam, the time independent component of the ponderomotive force along a direction perpendicular to the beam propagation becomes finite, which modifies the background plasma density profile in a direction transverse to pump beam axis. This modification in density affects the incident laser beam, ion-acoustic wave and back-scattered beam. We have set up non-linear differential equations for the beam width parameters of the main beam, ion-acoustic wave, back-scattered wave and SBS-reflectivity with the help of moment and paraxial theory approach. Results of the moment theory approach have been compared with that of paraxial theory approach. It has been observed from the analysis that reflectivity of the back-scattered wave is less in moment theory approach as compared to paraxial theory approach.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering of elliptical laser beam in collisionless plasma

This paper presents an investigation of self-focusing of elliptical laser beam in collisionless plasma and its effect on stimulated Brillouin scattering. The pump beam interacts with a pre-excited ion-acoustic wave leading to Brillouin back-scattered process. The transverse intensity gradient of a pump beam generates a ponderomotive force, which modifies the background plasma density profile in a direction transverse to pump beam axis. This modification in density effects the incident laser beam, ion-acoustic wave and back-scattered beam. Non-linear differential equations for the beam width parameters of pump laser beam, ion-acoustic wave and back-scattered beam are set up and solved numerically. It is observed from the analysis that the focusing of waves enhances the SBS back-reflectivity.

Propagation characters of Gaussian laser beams in collisionless plasma: Effect of plasma temperature

This paper presents an investigation of the propagation characters of Gaussian laser beam in cold collisionless plasma by considering the plasma temperature variation. The ponderomotive nonlinearity is involved and induces the nonlinear self-focusing against spatial diffraction. The second-order differential equation of dimensionless beam width parameter f(ξ) in terms of plasma temperature is established from Maxwell’s equations with paraxial approximation. The initial (P0,ρ0) plane, behaviors of f(ξ) parameter, and perturbed density n/nn0n0 of different plasma temperatures are plotted and analyzed. The plasma temperature is divided into four regions, which leads to different propagation characters including oscillatory divergence, self-trapping, self-focusing, and steady divergence. The plasma density distribution modified by the electric field intensity and plasma temperature is discussed.

Generation of Longmuir turbulence and stochastic acceleration in laser beat wave process

AbstractThis paper investigates the filamentation process of two co-axially propagating laser beams in collisionless plasma. On account of the ponderomotive nonlinearity, two laser beams affect the dynamics of each other, and cross-focusing takes place. The initial Gaussian laser beams are found to have non-Gaussian structures in the plasma. Using the laser beam and the plasma parameters, appropriate for the beat wave process, the filaments of the laser beams have been studied. Using these results, the Langmuir wave excitation at the beat wave frequency (when the laser beams are having filamentary structures) has been studied. The excited LW is modeled with the help of a driven oscillator and it is found that the excited Langmuir wave is not a plane wave; rather it has a turbulent structure. We have obtained the power spectrum of the excited beat wave (Langmuir wave), and calculated the spectral index. The stochastic electron acceleration has been studied in the presence of this Langmuir turbulence and relevance of these results to the beat wave process has been pointed out.

Self-focusing and defocusing of TEM 0p Hermite–Gaussian laser beams in collisionless plasma

The authors have investigated the self-focusing and defocusing of first six TEM 0 p Hermite –Gaussian laser beams in collisionless plasma. In case of collisionless plasma the nonlinearity in the dielectric constant is mainly due to the ponderomotive force. It is found that modes with odd p-values defocuses and that with even p-values exhibit oscillatory as well as defocusing character of beam-width parameters variation during their propagation in collisionless plasma. The entire theoretical formulation is established under parabolic wave equation approach. The numerical computation is completed by using fourth order Runge–Kutta method. Finally the behavior of beam-width parameters with the dimensionless distance of propagation is presented graphically.