Electron kinetic effects in the nonlinear evolution of a driven ion-acoustic wave.
The electron kinetic effects are shown to play an important role in the nonlinear evolution of a driven ion-acoustic wave. The numerical simulation results obtained (i) with a hybrid code, in which the electrons behave as a fluid and the ions are described along the particle-in-cell (PIC) method, are compared with those obtained (ii) with a full-PIC code, in which the kinetic effects on both species are retained. The electron kinetic effects interplay with the usual fluid-type nonlinearity to give rise to a broadband spectrum of ion-acoustic waves saturated at a low level, even in the case of a strong excitation. This low asymptotic level might solve the long-standing problem of the small stimulated Brillouin scattering reflectivity observed in laser-plasma interaction experiments.
Riconda
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C
Centre de Physique Théorique, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France.
Heron
A
A
Pesme
D
D
Hüller
S
S
Tikhonchuk
V T
VT
Detering
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F