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Surface Oscillations in Overdense Plasmas Irradiated by Ultrashort Laser Pulses

2001; American Physical Society; Volume: 87; Issue: 20 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.87.205004

1092-0145

Andrea Macchi, F. Cornolti, Ф. Пегораро, Т. В. Лисейкина, H. Rühl, В. А. Вшивков,

Atomic and Molecular Physics

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 omega 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.