Langmuir Decay Instability Cascade in Laser-Plasma Experiments

S. Depierreux; C. Labaune; J. Fuchs; D. Pesme; V. T. Tikhonchuk; H. A. Baldis

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.045001

Langmuir Decay Instability Cascade in Laser-Plasma Experiments

S. Depierreux, C. Labaune, J. Fuchs, D. Pesme, V. T. Tikhonchuk, and H. A. Baldis

Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 045001 – Published 8 July 2002

Abstract

Thomson scattering has been used to investigate the nonlinear evolution of electron plasma waves (EPWs) generated by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). Two complementary diagnostics demonstrate the occurrence of the cascade of Langmuir decay instabilities (LDI). The EPW wave-number spectrum displays an asymmetric broadening towards small wave numbers, interpreted as a signature of the secondary EPWs produced in the LDI cascade. The number of cascade steps is in agreement with the broadening of the associated ion-acoustic-waves' spectra. The total energy transferred in the EPWs cascade is found to be either less than or of the same order of magnitude as the energy of the primary EPW.

Received 3 August 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.045001

Authors & Affiliations

S. Depierreux^1,*, C. Labaune¹, J. Fuchs¹, D. Pesme², V. T. Tikhonchuk³, and H. A. Baldis⁴

¹Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR No. 7605 CNRS-École Polytechnique-CEA-Université Paris VI, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France
²Centre de Physique Théorique, UMR No. 7644 CNRS-École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France
³Institut de Physique Fondamentale, Université Bordeaux-1, 33405 Talence Cedex, France
⁴Institute for Laser Science and Applications, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94550