Nonlinear trapping and self-guiding of magnetized Langmuir waves due to thermal plasma filamentation
Nonlinear interaction of Langmuir waves with a laboratory magnetoplasma has been studied under the conditions relevant to the ionospheric heating experiments. Self-guiding of magnetized Langmuir waves is observed at critical plasma density ({omega}={omega}{sub p}): Langmuir waves are trapped inside a narrow, magnetic-field-aligned plasma density depletion region, which is formed by trapped waves due to thermal plasma nonlinearity, i.e., due to local plasma heating and consequent thermodiffusion. Magnetized Langmuir waves are trapped inside the depletion region through their specific dispersion properties; this fact has been shown using the kinetically modified dispersion relation. The threshold of the nonlinear wave trapping exhibits significantmore »