Excitation and damping of a self-modulated laser wakefield

Authors

Shouyuan Chen, University of MichiganFollow
M. Krishnan, University of Michigan
Anatoly Maksimchuk, University of MichiganFollow
Donald P. Umstadter, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

1-1-2000

Comments

Published in Physics of Plasmas 7:1 (Jan 2000), pp. 403-413.
© 2000 American Institute of Physics. Used by permission. S1070-664X(00)04201-4
Physics of Plasmas is published monthly by the American Institute of Physics with the cooperation of The American Physical Society, Division of Plasma Physics; http://pop.aip.org/

Abstract

Spatially, temporally, and angularly resolved collinear collective Thomson scattering was used to diagnose the excitation and damping of a relativistic-phase-velocity self-modulated laser wakefield. The excitation of the electron plasma wave was observed to be driven by Raman-type instabilities. The damping is believed to originate from both electron beam loading and modulational instability. The collective Thomson scattering of a probe pulse from the ion acoustic waves, resulting from modulational instability, allows us to measure the temporal evolution of the plasma temperature. The latter was found to be consistent with the damping of the electron plasma wave.