skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Simulating time-dependent energy transfer between crossed laser beams in an expanding plasma

Journal Article · · Journal of Computational Physics
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2]
  1. Center for Applied Scientific Computing, L-561, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, PO Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551-0808 (United States)
  2. AX Division, L-038, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, PO Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551-0808 (United States)

A coupled mode system is derived to investigate a three-wave parametric instability leading to energy transfer between co-propagating laser beams crossing in a plasma flow. The model includes beams of finite width refracting in a prescribed transverse plasma flow with spatial and temporal gradients in velocity and density. The resulting paraxial light equations are discretized spatially with a Crank-Nicholson-type scheme, and these algebraic constraints are nonlinearly coupled with ordinary differential equations in time that describe the ion acoustic response. The entire nonlinear differential-algebraic system is solved using an adaptive, backward-differencing method coupled with Newton's method. A numerical study is conducted in two dimensions that compares the intensity gain of the fully time-dependent coupled mode system with the gain computed under the further assumption of a strongly damped ion acoustic response. The results demonstrate a time-dependent gain suppression when the beam diameter is commensurate with the velocity gradient scale length. The gain suppression is shown to depend on time-dependent beam refraction and is interpreted as a time-dependent frequency shift.

OSTI ID:
20687263
Journal Information:
Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 209, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.jcp.2005.03.024; PII: S0021-9991(05)00194-4; Copyright (c) 2005 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-9991
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English