Emission of submm-radiation by strong turbulent plasma at two-stream instability of high current REB

Abstract

One of possible ways to generate submillimeter wave and THz radiation is to use transformation of plasma waves into electromagnetic radiation at strong Langmuir turbulence [1]. We had already described some implementation of such method at the GOL-3 experiments [2–4], wherein the mechanism of plasma heating was recognized as the excitation of strong Langmuir turbulence (LT) via a two-stream instability induced by the propagating high current beam. The detailed theoretical consideration of LT-induced electromagnetic emission from turbulent plasmas distinguishes two main processes responsible for electromagnetic radiation emission during the beam-plasma interaction at GOL-3. First, plasmon scattering on plasma density fluctuations yields electromagnetic emission at the plasma frequency ωp (“ωp-process”). Second, plasmon-plasmon merging results in production of photons in the vicinity of the double plasma frequency 2ωp (“2ωp-process”). For plasma densities of 10¹⁴–10¹⁵ cm⁻³, corresponding output radiation frequencies are located in the range from mm to sub-mm waves, ωP/2π ≌ 90–283 GHz, 2ωP/2π ≌ 180–566 GHz.