Relativistic plasma-wave excitation by collinear optical mixing

C. E. Clayton, C. Joshi, C. Darrow, D. Umstadter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

The relativistic plasma wave excited when the frequency difference between two copropagating CO2 laser beams equals the plasma frequency is detected for the first time. The plasma-wave frequency, wave number, spatial extent, and saturation time are directly measured by use of 7-mrad, collective, ruby Thomson scattering and the forward-scattered ir spectrum. The wave amplitude nn0 is inferred to be (1-3)% which gives a longitudinal electric field of 0.3 to 1 GV/m at a laser intensity of 1.7×1013 W/cm2, in reasonable agreement with theory.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2343-2346
Number of pages4
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume54
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - 1985
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

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