title: Electron kinetic effects in the nonlinear evolution of a driven ion-acoustic wave.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Physique Théorique, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Riconda
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heron
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pesme
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hüller
authors.forename: V T
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Tikhonchuk
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Detering