Introduction and handbook to high-power laser-matter interaction, laser generated plasma, nonlinear waves, particle acceleration, nonlinear optics, nonlinear dynamics, radiation transport, it provides a systematic review of the major results and developments of the past 25 years.

Introduction and handbook to high- power laser-matter interaction, laser generated plasma, nonlinear waves, particle acceleration, nonlinear optics, nonlinear dynamics, radiation transport. The book provides a systematic review of the major results and developments of the past 25 years.

Comprehensive review Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Peter Mulser, born in Völs-Fiè, (Bolzano), Italy, studied physics at the University of Pisa, at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, and at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, where he gained his diploma. He received his PhD in physics from the Technical University of Munich. In 1981, following research fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching and at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, he became a full Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Klappentext
This book intended as a guide for scientists and students who have just discovered the field as a new and attractive area of research, and for scientists who have worked in another field and want to join now the subject of laser plasmas. In the first chapter the plasma dynamics is described phenomenologically by a two fluid model and similarity relations from dimensional analysis. Chapter 2 is devoted to plasma optics and collisional absorption in the dielectric and ballistic model. Linear resonance absorption at the plasma frequency and its mild nonlinearities as well as the self-quenching of high amplitude electron plasma waves by wave breaking are discussed in Chapter 3. With increasing laser intensity the plasma dynamics is dominated by radiation pressure, at resonance producing all kinds of parametric instabilities and out of resonance leading to density steps, self-focusing and filamentation, described in Chapters 4 and 5. A self-contained treatment of field ionization of atoms and related phenomena are found in Chapter 6. The extension of laser interaction to the relativistic electron acceleration as well as the physics of collisionless absorption are the subject of Chapter 7. Throughout the book the main emphasis is on the various basic phenomena and on their underlying physics.

Inhalt
Introductory Remarks and Overview.- The Laser Plasma: Basic Phenomena and Laws.- Laser Light Propagation and Collisional Absorption.- Resonance Absorption.- The Ponderomotive Force and Nonresonant Effects.- Resonant Ponderomotive Effects.- Intense LaserAtom Interaction.- Relativistic LaserPlasma Interaction.