Breaking of a wake wave excited by a narrow laser pulse in a low-density plasma

Journal Article · Mon Aug 15 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Plasma Physics Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063780X11060080· OSTI ID:22047515

Frolov, A A ^[1]; Chizhonkov, E V ^[2]

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1. Russian Academy of Sciences, Joint Institute for High Temperatures (Russian Federation)
2. Moscow State University (Russian Federation)

The spatial structure of a wake wave excited in a low-density plasma by a laser pulse with a small focal spot radius is studied both analytically and numerically. Numerical study shows that, in a small-amplitude laser field, a wake wave breaks after the formation of an off-axis density maximum, which grows in height away from the pulse to become infinitely high after several periods. Analytical and numerical calculations show that the singularity in the density arises from the intersection of the trajectories of neighboring particles. Numerical simulations demonstrate that, as the laser field amplitude increases, the breaking point of the wake wave rapidly approaches the pulse trailing edge. For weakly nonlinear conditions, an analytic dependence of the coordinate of the breaking point on the amplitude and transverse size of the laser pulse is obtained.

• OSTI ID: 22047515
• Journal Information: Plasma Physics Reports, Journal Name: Plasma Physics Reports Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 37; ISSN PPHREM; ISSN 1063-780X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
AMPLITUDES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COORDINATES
LASER RADIATION
LASERS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA SIMULATION
PULSES