Relativistic Plasma-Wave Excitation by Collinear Optical Mixing

Authors

C.E. Clayton, University of California, Los Angeles
C. Joshi, University of California, Los Angeles
C. Darrow, University of California, Los Angeles
Donald P. Umstadter, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

5-27-1985

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Physical Review Letters 54, 2343 (1985). http://prl.aps.org. Copyright © 1985 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

The relativistic plasma wave excited when the frequency difference between two copropagating CO₂ laser beams equals the plasma frequency is detected for the first time. The plasma-wave frequency, wave number, spatial extent, and saturation time are directly measured by use of 7-mrad, collective, ruby Thomson scattering and the forward-scattered ir spectrum. The wave amplitude ñ/n₀ is inferred to be (1-3)% which gives a longitudinal electric field of 0.3 to 1 GV/m at a laser intensity of 1.7×10¹³ W/cm², in reasonable agreement with theory.