Multiphase nonlinear electron plasma waves

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to generate multiphase nonlinear electron plasma waves using autoresonant excitation with chirped-frequency drives, validated through simulations and analytical modeling, with potential applications in plasma photonics and acceleration.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach combining nonlinear fluid simulations and analytical theory to construct multiphase plasma waves via autoresonance, a technique not previously applied in this context.

Findings

Successful excitation of multiphase waves demonstrated in simulations

Analytical model predictions align well with numerical results

Potential applications in plasma photonic and acceleration devices

Abstract

We present a method for constructing multiphase excitations in the generally non-integrable system of warm fluid equations describing plasma oscillations. It is based on autoresonant excitation of nonlinear electron plasma waves by phase locking with small amplitude chirped-frequency ponderomotive drives. We demonstrate the excitation of these multiphase waves by performing fully nonlinear numerical simulations of the fluid equations. We develop a simplified model based on a weakly nonlinear analytical theory by applying Whitham's averaged Lagrangian procedure. The simplified model predictions are in good agreement with the results from the warm fluid simulations. Such autoresonantly excited multiphase waves form coherent quasicrystalline structures, which can potentially be used as plasma photonic or accelerating devices. Finally, we discuss the laser parameters required for the autoresonant excitation of nonlinear waves in a plasma.