Surface oscillations in overdense plasmas irradiated by ultrashort laser pulses

Year: 2001

Authors: Macchi A., Cornolti F., Pegoraro F., Liseikina T.V., Ruhl H., Vshivkov V.

Autors Affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica and INFM (Sezione A), Universitá di Pisa, Pisa, Italy;
Max-Born Institut, Berlin, Germany;
Institute of Computational Technologies of SD-RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

Abstract: The generation of electron surface oscillations in overdense plasmas irradiated at normal incidence by an intense laser pulse is investigated. Two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell simulations show a transition from a planar, electrostatic oscillation at 2 omega, with omega the laser frequency, to a 2D electromagnetic oscillation at frequency w and wave vector k > omega /c. A new electron parametric instability, involving the decay of a 1D electrostatic oscillation into two surface waves, is introduced to explain the basic features of the 2D oscillations. This effect leads to the rippling of the plasma surface within a few laser cycles, and is likely to have a strong impact on laser interaction with solid targets.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

Volume: 87 (20)      Pages from: 205004  to: 205004

KeyWords: laser-plasma interactions; surface waves; ; particle-in-cell simulations;
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.205004

Citations: 70
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