The Interaction of High-Power Lasers With Plasmas

Abstract

This book deals with the fundamental physics of numerous plasma processes that occur during laser plasma interactions. The subject matter is related to both basic plasma physics and applied physics. The author starts with the essentials of high power lasers whose duration ranges from nanoseconds to femtoseconds, and then builds up an introduction to plasma physics by describing ionization, well known transport coefficients (electrical and thermal conductivities, diffusion, viscosity, energy transport etc), Debye length, plasma oscillations and the properties of the laser induced plasma medium. The book contains plasma dynamical equations for describing the hydrodynamic and kinetic phenomena, and treating particle dynamics by computer simulation. The ponderomotive force is discussed for small amplitude electromagnetic fields in an unmagnetized plasma. However, for intense laser beams one should obtain new expressions for the relativistic ponderomotive force, which are totally absent from this book. Furthermore, in laser plasma interactions strong magnetic fields are produced which will drastically modify the relativistic ponderomotive force expressions. The physics of collisional absorption of electromagnetic waves and their propagation in a nonuniform unmagnetized plasma has been elegantly described. The phenomena of the resonance absorption of laser light is also discussed. Simple models for the parametric processes are developed, while there are no discussions of cavitons/envelope solitons. The latter are usually regarded as possible nonlinear states of the modulational/filamentational instabilities. Rather, the author presents a description of a K-dV equation for nonlinear ion-acoustic waves without the laser field. The description of a non-envelope ion-acoustic soliton has already appeared in many plasma physics textbooks.