Review of parametric instabilities

Conference · Thu Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1973

OSTI ID:4326146

Schmidt, G

From AGARD-NATO meeting; Edinbungh, Scotland, UK (Nov Parametric instabilities produced by electromagnetic waves propagating in a magnetic field- free plasma are reviewed. The discussion is based on the use of the ponderomotive force as the basic physical mechanism responsible for these instabilities. Decay of the electromagnetic wave into an electron and ion wave, the oscillating two stream instability, filamentation instability, stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering, resistive and reactive quasi modes can all be treated in a unified fashion, in a uniform medium. If the plasma is bounded, the threshold power is nonzero even in the absence of damping, and may be the dominant factor in determining threshold and growth rate values. The threshold for stimulated Raman scattering increases in the presence of plasma density gradients, while temperature gradients have a similar effect on simulated Brillouin scattering. The finite cross section of the pump wave determines the undamped threshold for the filamentation instability. In a nonuniform plasma stimulated Raman backscatiering becomes very strong in the neighborhood of the point where the pump frequency is twice the local plasma frequency. (auth)

• Research Organization: Stevens Inst. of Tech., Hoboken, N.J. (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
• NSA Number: NSA-29-025762
• OSTI ID: 4326146
• Report Number(s): COO--3004-4; CONF-731135--1; SIT--271
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

*PLASMA INSTABILITY-- PARAMETRIC INSTABILITIES
BRILLOUIN EFFECT
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRON PLASMA WAVES
INSTABILITY GROWTH RATES
ION PLASMA WAVES
N70700* --Physics--Controlled Thermonuclear Research-- Stability
RAMAN EFFECT
TWO-STREAM INSTABILITY
WAVE PROPAGATION