Abstract
High intensity laser irradiation of a plasma can accelerate the electrons to relativistic velocities. For circularly polarized light the refractive index,n, of the collisionless plasma is then a time-independent function of laser and plasma frequency as well as laser peak intensity; but for linearly polarized light,n (i.e., the wave or phase velocity of the wave in units of the speed of light in vacuum) also becomes a periodic function of time. The deeper the wave penetrates the plasma the higher becomes the multiplicity of values ofn. This means that the laser radiation transforms inside the plasma into several nonlinear waves with periodically changing phase velocities.
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References
H. Schwarz andR. Tabensky, in ‘Laser Interaction and Related Plasma Phenomena’, Vol.4B (Eds. H. Schwarz and H. Hora) (Plenum Press, New York, 1977) p. 961.
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Work supported in part by Brazilian Research Council (CNPq) and presented under the title 'Refractive Index of a Plasma' at the 11th European Conference on Laser Interaction with Matter, Oxford, England, 19–23 September 1977.
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Schwarz, H., Liu, Y.S. Laser — induced modulation of the refractive index of a plasma. Opt Quant Electron 10, 515–520 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00619853
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00619853