Abstract

Filamentation of a Uniform Laser Beam Propagating in a Homogeneous Collisional Plasma Including the Effect of Thermal Conduction

Author(s): Ghanshyam

In this paper we have studied the filamentation of laser beams in plasmas where both collisional and thermalconduction losses are present simultaneously. A uniform intensity laser beam propagating through collisional plasma is unstable to transverse perturbations, and breaks up into filaments. An optimum value of q⊥ of the perturbation is required for a maximum growth rate. A uniform plane wave does not cause redistribution of the carriers. However, as a result of perturbation in the intensity distribution along the wave, electrons do become redistributed. It is noted that the spatial growth rate is a monotonically increasing and saturating function of the incident intensity of the beam.