Relativistic effects on the Weibel instability of circularly polarized microwave produced plasmas

Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 2004 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1809119· OSTI ID:20643912

Shokri, B; Ghorbanalilu, M ^[1]

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1. Physics Department, Laser Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Evin, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

Analyzing the production of a weakly relativistic plasma produced by microwave fields with circular polarization in the adiabatic approximation, the electron distribution function is obtained, which is nonequilibrium and anisotropic. Furthermore, it is shown that the produced plasma is accelerated in the direction of propagating microwave electric fields. The electron velocity in this direction strongly depends on electron origination phase, electric field phase, and amplitude of the microwave electric field. Making use of the dielectric tensor obtained for this plasma, it is shown that the Weibel instability develops due to the anisotropic property of the distribution function. It is shown that the growth rate in the relativistic case is higher than that obtained for the nonrelativistic case by a factor depending on the electric field strength and plasma frequency.

• OSTI ID: 20643912
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 11; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
DIELECTRIC TENSOR
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA WAVES
RELATIVISTIC PLASMA