Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications 2005
J.-C. Gauthier, et al.
J. Phys. IV France 133 (2006) 265-269
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:2006133053

Electromagnetic droplets created by stimulated Brillouin backscattering

M. Passoni^{1, 2}, M. Lontano¹, C. Riconda³, V.T. Tikhonchuk³, S. Weber³ and  A. Ghizzo<sup>4

1</sup>  Istituto di Fisica del Plasma "P. Caldirola", CNR, 20125 Milano, Italy
²  Dipartimento di Ingegneria Nucleare, Politecnico di Milano, 20131 Milano, Italy
³  Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, Université Bordeaux 1, 33405 Talence, France
⁴  LPMI, Université Henri Poicar Nancy I, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France

Abstract
Recent particle-in-cell simulations of the stimulated Brillouin backscattering (SBBS) of electromagnetic radiation have shown that non-drifting solitary waves are easily produced even at sub-relativistic intensities ( ), and remain almost unchanged all along the simulation time. The associated formation of strong density depressions disrupts the resonant SBBS amplification, enables strong electron and ion heating and leads to a final low-level saturated regime for the reflected radiation. In this paper, we review the main phases which characterize this regime of interaction, as resulting from the numerical simulations. A theoretical model of electromagnetic solitons in hot and dense plasmas is used to derive the physical characteristics of the resulting electromagnetic solitons and to compare these predictions with the numerical results.

© EDP Sciences 2006