Anomalous absorption of intense electromagnetic radiation in a non-uniform overdense plasma

Abstract

In this work, we present numerical computation of anomalous absorption of a powerful electromagnetic wave incident normally, on an isothermal plasma with a linear density gradient. We consider first, the “intensity” dependence of anomalous absorption treating two important cases: one that of a typical high temperature, high density fusion plasma occurring in a laser-pellet application and the other that of an ionospheric (F-layer) plasma. It is found that for low incident powers, reflection is almost constant, corresponding essentially, to classical electronion collisions. As we increase the incident power, however, we find that the reflection starts dropping and the absorption takes over. This result is interpreted in terms of the instability generated anomalous absorption of the incident wave. Next, we consider the “wavelength” dependence of anomalous absorption, wherein we observe that the effect of anomalous absorption is increasing for longer wavelengths of the incident laser radiation.