Interaction of Electromagnetic Waves with a Moving Ionization Front.
Abstract
This paper considers the problem of an electromagnetic wave packet incident on a relativistically moving plane ionization or recombination front separating a stationary neutral gas region from a stationary plasma region. The freuqency of the reflected wave packet is found to obey the usual double Doppler shift relation. However, the reflection coefficients and the physics can differ significantly from the case of reflection from moving material objects. The ratio of the energy in the incident wave packet is shown to be at most (i.e. for the overdense case omega(i)*/omega(r)* for the ionization front omega(i)* is less than omega(r)*, and omega(r)*/omega(i)* for the recombination front omega(i)* is greater than omega(r)*, where omega(i)* and omega(r)* are the incident and reflected wave frequencies in the laboratory frame. These results have important implications for the production of submillimeter wavelength pulses by upshifted reflection from a relativistically moving ionization front. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA041177
Entities
People
- Edward Ott
- Mártin Lampe
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory