Penetration of Intense Electromagnetic Waves in Dense Plasmas

Abstract

The propagation of an intense Gaussian electromagnetic beam has been studied in a dense plasma when the frequency of the wave (ω) is less than the plasma frequency (ω_p). An expression has been obtained for the nonlinear dielectric constant of the medium taking into account the space charge field effects and the appropriate collision mechanism. It is found that the transmittivity of waves increases with the increase in power of the beam for both the electron- ion and electron-neutral particle collision dominated plasmas. At very high power of the beam all waves with ω<ω_p penetrate by equal amount. This effect appears at relatively low powers in the electron-ion collision dominated plasma.