Investigation of the plasma-wave interaction in helicon plasmas near the lower hybrid frequency

The study of the characteristics of the plasma-wave interaction in helicon plasmas near the lower hybrid frequency has been carried out. The (0D) dispersion relation is derived to analyse the properties of the wave propagation and the 1D cylindrical plasma-wave interaction model is established to investigate the power deposition and implement the parametric analysis. It is concluded that the lower hybrid resonance is the main mechanism of the power deposition in helicon plasmas when the RF frequency is near the lower hybrid frequency and the power deposition mainly concentrates a very thin layer near the boundary. Therefore, it causes that the plasma resistance has a large local peak near the lower hybrid frequency and the variation of the plasma density and the parallel wavenumber lead to the frequency shifting of the local peaks. It is found that the magnetic field is still proportional to the plasma density for the local maximum plasma resistance and the slope changes due to the transition.

WAKEFIELD EXCITATION BY A RAMPED ELECTRON BUNCH TRAIN IN A PLASMA-DIELECTRIC WAVEGUIDE

A linear theory of wakefield excitation by a ramped electron bunch train in a cylindrical plasma-dielectric waveguide is presented. It is shown that during an excitation process the drive bunches are in the focusing field due to the radial electric field excitation of the plasma wave. The possibility of both obtaining a high transformer ratio and focusing the drive and witness bunches is demonstrated.

Study of optical guiding of the Hermite–Gaussian laser beam in preformed collisional parabolic plasma channel and second harmonic generation

In the present work, the scheme of optical guiding of the Hermite–Gaussian laser beam and the generation of second-harmonic 2ω radiation (ω being the frequency of incident beam) is presented in plasma having the preformed collisional plasma channel in which density variation is parabolic. The nonlinear coupling of excited electron plasma wave with the carrier or incident beam results in the production of second harmonics of the latter. The method of moments is used for finding the coupled differential equations for the beam diameter to study the dynamics of the Hermite–Gaussian laser beam in plasma under the effect of the collisional parabolic channel. For numerical simulations, the Runge–Kutta fourth-order numerical method is used. Standard perturbation theory gives the equation for excitation of electron plasma wave which further acts as the source term for the second harmonic generation. The numerical results show that the preformed plasma channel has a significant effect on the guiding as well as on the 2ω generation of the Hermite–Gaussian laser beam in plasma.

Direct Electron Acceleration By An Intense Nonparaxial Cosh-Gaussian Laser Beam Driven Electron Plasma Wave in Plasma

Excitation of electron plasma wave by an intense short laser pulse is relevant to electron acceleration process in laser plasma interactions. In this work, the self-focusing of an intense cosh-Gaussian laser beam in collissionless plasma have been studied in the non-paraxial region with relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities. Further, the effect of self-focusing of the cosh-Gaussian laser beam on the excitation of electron plasma wave and on subsequent electron acceleration has been investigated. Analytical expressions for the beam width parameter/intensity of cosh-Gaussian laser beam and the electron plasma wave have been established and solved numerically. The energy of the accelerated electrons has also been obtained. The strong self-focusing of the cosh-Gaussian laser beam in plasmas stimulates a large amplitude electron plasma wave, which further accelerates the electrons. The well-established laser and plasma parameters have been used in numerical computation. The results have been compared with paraxial ray approximation, Gaussian profile of laser beam and only with the relativistic nonlinearity. Numerical results suggest that the focusing of the cosh-Gaussian laser beam, the amplitude of electron plasma wave, and energy gain by electrons increases in non-paraxial region, when relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities are simultaneously operative. In addition, it has also been observed that the electron plasma wave is driven more efficiently by a cosh-Gaussian laser beam that accelerates plasma electrons to higher energies.