Resonantly excited nonlinear ion waves

Abstract

One- and two-dimensional simulations and supporting analysis of nonlinear ion acoustic waves as might be associated with the saturation of stimulated Brillouin backscattering (SBBS) are presented. To simulate ion wave phenomena efficiently, while retaining a fully kinetic representation of the ions, a Boltzmann fluid model is used for the electrons, and a particle-in-cell representation is used for the ions. Poisson’s equation is solved in order to retain space-charge effects. We derive a new dispersion relation describing the parametric instability of ion waves, evidence for which is observed in our simulations. One- and two-dimensional simulations of plasma with either initially cold or warm ions (and multi-species ions) exhibit a complex interplay of phenomena that influence the time evolution and relaxation of the amplitude of the excited ion wave: ion trapping, wave steepening, acceleration, heating and tail formation in the ion velocity distribution, parametric decay into longer wavelength ion waves, modulational and filamentation instabilities, and induced scattering by ions. The additional degrees of freedom in two dimensions allow for a more rapid relaxation of the primary ion wave. One-dimensional electrostatic simulations with externally driven ion waves agree qualitatively with electromagnetic simulations in one dimension in which the ponderomotive driving potential is computed self-consistently by solving a Schroedinger-like equation for the electromagnetic waves and calculating the low-frequency ponderomotive force on the electrons.