Parametric instabilities of electromagnetic waves in plasmas

Abstract

A simple formalism for the parametric decay of an intense, coherent electromagnetic wave into an electrostatic wave and scattered electromagnetic waves in a homogeneous plasma is developed. Various instabilities including Brillouin and Raman scattering, Compton scattering, filamentational and modulational instabilities are derived and discussed in a systematic manner. Growth rates as a function of the incident pump power are shown.