Growth of high power laser ripple in plasma and its effects on upper hybrid wave excitation: Relativistic effects

Abstract

The growth of a radially symmetric ripple superimposed on a single intense Gaussian laser beam in a collisionless magnetized plasma is investigated. WKB and Paraxial ray approximations are used to calculate wave equation for the main beam and the ripple. Numerical results show that the relativistic power of laser beam, the dynamics of ripple gets affected by its position and phase angle as well as some other parameters. The effect of growth of ripple on excitation of upper hybrid wave is also studied.