Relativistic Self Focusing of Short Pulse Radiation Beams in Plasmas.

Abstract

An envelope equation is derived which describes the radial evolution of a radiation beam propagating through a plasma. The radiation envelope equation contains a defocusing term due to diffraction spreading and a focusing term due to relativistic oscillations of the plasma electrons. The case of a constant density background plasma is analyzed in detail and an expression for a critical laser power is derived. For powers exceeding the critical power the radiation envelope oscillators and does not diffract. Under certain conditions, the radiation beam propagates through the plasma with a constant radius envelope. Keywords: Self focusing; Laser plasma interactions; Radiation propagation; Envelope equation; Relativistic plasma.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 15, 1987
Accession Number
ADA181651

Entities

People

  • Cha-Mei Tang
  • E. Esarey
  • P. Sprangle

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplitude
  • Charged Particles
  • Diffraction
  • Dispersion Relations
  • Distribution Functions
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Electrons
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Frequency
  • Lasers
  • Light Sources
  • Linear Accelerators
  • Oscillation
  • Particle Physics
  • Radiation
  • Simulations

Fields of Study

  • Engineering
  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics