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We establish the conditions under which collisions of electrons with ions affect the generation of terahertz radiation at normal incidence of a laser pulse on a dense plasma in a constant magnetic field. If during the time of exposure to the laser pulse, the number of collisions of electrons occurred is not small, then the amplitude of generated magnetic field decreases, the shape of the generated pulse changes, and the total energy of terahertz radiation decreases. The influence of collisions on the generation of terahertz radiation manifests itself in a relatively weak magnetic field, when the electron cyclotron frequency is lower than the plasma frequency.

The interaction of electromagnetic radiation with inhomogeneous plasma formed by multiphoton ionization of inert gas atoms has been studied. In high-frequency and normal skin effects modes the field structure in plasma is described and reflection and absorption coefficients are found. It is shown that as the thickness of the plasma region, in which the photoelectron density grows linearly, increases, both the depth of field penetration and the absorption coefficient increase, too. It is found that, due to the Ramzauer-Townsend effect, there is a relative increase in the effective frequency of photoelectron collisions with atoms, which is accompanied by a significant increase in the absorption coefficient.

We investigate the interaction between a test monochromatic wave and semibounded plasma formed by multiphoton ionization of gas atoms. Under conditions where photoelectron distribution is isotropic and has a narrow peak in energy, the field in the plasma is represented by two contributions. The first of them arises from a pole in the complex plane of wave numbers and decays exponentially deeper into plasma. The second contribution comes from banks of the cut in the same plane and leads to a power-law decrease of the field under conditions of the anomalous skin effect. We obtain analytical expressions for the field under conditions of high-frequency and anomalous skin effects and find the surface impedance and absorption coefficient.

We reveal the possibility of a low-frequency radiation generation at a normal incidence of the laser pulse on a dense plasma in a constant magnetic field. The generation occurs due to the motion of electrons under the magnetic field effect and a ponderomotive force slowly varying with time localized in the skin layer where the laser radiation penetrates. The characteristic radiation frequencies are determined by the inverse duration of the laser pulse. We find the field strength of the radiation generated and its dependences on the Larmor frequency of electrons and the plasma and laser pulse parameters.

In the regime of above-threshold ionization of gas atom in the field of laser radiation, plasma with photoelectron distribution consisting of peaks at discrete energy values is formed. It is shown that the number of longitudinal waves in such plasma coincides with the number of peaks in the distribution function. When peaks practically don't overlap, the dispersion law of each wave in the region of short waves is determined by electrons from the corresponding peak. In this case the phase and group velocities of the waves are close to the electron velocity, which corresponds to the peak maximum. It is possible to talk about such waves as an electronic sound, since the perturbations of the electron density mainly arise due to pressure perturbations. When the peaks are narrow, but having a finite width, the Cherenkov damping of waves is exponentially small. Numerical calculations the dispersion laws for of the two and four waves in photoionized xenon plasma, in which the electron distribution function consists of two or four narrow peaks are given.

The transmission of near infrared femtosecond laser pulses (wavelength of 800 nm) and supercontinuum radiation (300–750 nm) generated by them through a 50-nm gold film immersed in water has been experimentally studied at the power of focused laser radiation in the range of 1–10 GW. An increase in the excitation intensity is accompanied by the blueshift of the edge of the extinction band of the film, which is attributed to the filling of electronic states of the s band with a low density of states caused by two-photon interband transitions from d bands with a high density of states.

The transmission of femtosecond laser pulses of the near-infrared range (wavelength of 1030 nm) through nanocrystalline gold films with a variable thickness (15–90 nm) has been experimentally studied for various intensities of laser radiation in the range of 1–10 TW/cm2. A dip in the transmission coefficient at the wave-length of pump pulses at moderate radiation intensities is due to two-photon transitions from d bands with a high density of states to s and p bands with a low density of states and their saturation at higher intensities. The cross section is estimated for two-photon absorption in gold films enhanced by plasmon resonance of gold nanocrystallites at the wavelength of the second harmonic of exciting radiation, which is compared to values for gold films and various plasmon nanostructures known for other spectral ranges.

The interaction of monochromatic electromagnetic radiation with a photoionized plasma formed during multiphoton ionization of inert gas atoms is studied. It is shown how electron collisions with neutral atoms affect the surface impedance and absorption coefficient. The possibility of a significant absorption coefficient growth in the regimes of high-frequency and normal skin effects due to the manifestation of the Ramsauer-Townsend effect was revealed. The conditions under which the interaction of test low-frequency radiation with a photoionized inert gas plasma is similar to the interaction with a dielectric with a permittivity having a small imaginary part are established.

The dispersion law and collisionless damping rate of quasi-potential waves in the plasma formed upon tunnel ionization of gas atoms in the field of a short pulse of circularly or linearly polarized radiation are found. It is shown how the frequency and damping rate of quasi-potential waves depend on the wave propagation direction relative to the symmetry axis of the photoelectron distribution. It is established that, in plasma with a toroidal photoelectron velocity distribution, weakly damped waves with a linear dispersion law and frequency above the electron plasma frequency can propagate in a wide range of angles. In the case of a bi-Maxwellian photoelectron distribution, the frequency of weakly damped waves is comparable with the electron plasma frequency and the anisotropy of electron motion manifests itself in relatively small corrections to the dispersion law.

Nonlinear generation of the quasi-cylindrical and surface waves in terahertz frequency domain under exposure of a femtosecond laser pulse focused into a strip on a metal was studied. Competition between generated waves is determined by the value of the product of electron collision frequency and laser pulse duration. Comparison of magnetic field pulses of the quasi-cylindrical and surface waves generated on the surface is given for gold, silver, and aluminum. It is shown that far from the focusing strip the surface wave pulse contains oscillations arising due to frequency dispersion.

Dependences of the effective penetration depth of probe pulse field in current-carrying plasma with time-dependent temperatures of particles are determined. It is shown that the field penetration in fully and weakly ionized plasmas takes place in the subdiffusion and superdiffusion regimes, respectively.

Excitation of plasma waves by nonlinear currents induced by a high-frequency electromagnetic pulse is analyzed within the kinetic approach. It is shown that the most efficient source of plasma waves is the nonlinear current arising due to the gradient of the energy density of the high-frequency field. Generation of plasma waves by the drag current is usually less efficient but not negligibly small at relatively high frequencies of electron–ion collisions. The influence of electron collisions on the excitation of plasma waves by pulses of different duration is described quantitatively.

It is demonstrated that a chain of fast vortices produces a peak in the current–voltage characteristic of an annular Josephson junction coupled to a waveguide.

The penetration of a monochromatic electromagnetic wave into the weakly ionised plasma formed by multiphoton ionization of inert gas atoms has been studied. It is shown how the type of dependence of the photoelectron collision frequency on their velocity determines transverse permettivity in plasma. Explicit expressions for the absorption coefficient in inert gases at different probe radiation frequencies are obtained. In the high-frequency skin effect mode, the possibility of the absorption coefficient increasing due to the Ramsauer-Townsend effect has been demonstrated with argon as an example.

Longitudinal collective modes in plasma produced by multiphoton ionization of inert gas atoms are studied. The high-frequency and the low-frequency modes in Xe plasma are considered in detail. It is shown that due to the Ramsauer–Townsend effect, photoelectron collisions with neutral atoms lead to a significant increase in decrement of high-frequency mode in the long-wavelength region where this mode frequency is close to the electron Langmuir one. In the region of wave numbers larger than the ratio of electron Langmuir frequency to photoelectrons average velocity, the dispersion law of high-frequency mode is close to the dispersion law of electron acoustic wave, the phase and the group velocities of which are close to photoelectrons' average velocity. In this case, the acoustic wave is weakly damped even for photoelectrons' collision frequencies comparable to electron Langmuir frequency. There is a low-frequency mode along with the high-frequency one. In the region of relatively small wave numbers, this mode describes aperiodic instability with the growth rate not exceeding half of the electron Langmuir frequency. The instability is caused by the Ramsauer–Townsend effect. As the wave number increases, the low-frequency mode transforms into a longitudinal wave, the amplitude of which increases with time. In the region of wave numbers greater than the ratio of photoelectron average velocity to electron Langmuir frequency, the low-frequency wave is strongly damped due to photoelectron collisions. Influence of the spread of photoelectrons in energy on the low-frequency mode is relatively small. In contrast, a finite width of photoelectron distribution over energy leads to significant collisionless damping of high-frequency wave in the short-wavelength region.

We consider the conditions of aperiodic instability appearance in photoionized plasma produced at the impact of a pulse of circularly polarized radiation on the gas. We show the possibility of electromagnetic radiation amplification under reflection by photoionized plasma. We give a comparative analysis of amplification patterns taking place in hydrodynamic and kinetic description of the photoelectrons dynamics.

It is shown that the nonlinear currents generated in plasma by a radiation pulse with a frequency exceeding the electron plasma frequency change substantially due to a reduction in the effective electron–ion collision frequency.

The tensor of the high-frequency conductivity of a plasma created via tunnel ionization of atoms in the field of linearly or circularly polarized radiation is derived. It is shown that the real part of the conductivity tensor is highly anisotropic. In the case of a toroidal velocity distribution of photoelectrons, the possibility of amplification of a weak high-frequency field polarized at a sufficiently large angle to the anisotropy axis of the initial nonequilibrium distribution is revealed.

The dependences of the frequency and damping rate of a potential surface wave on the wavenumber and the degree of anisotropy of a bi-Maxwellian electron distribution characterized by different temperatures along and across the plasma surface are established. It is demonstrated that the influence of electron thermal motion along the plasma surface on the surface wave properties is similar to the influence of thermal motion on the properties of a bulk Langmuir wave. On the contrary, thermal motion across the surface qualitatively affects the dispersion relation and substantially increases the damping rate.

A new nonlinear optical phenomenon—generation of surface waves by a drag current appearing at an inclined incidence of a focused femtosecond laser pulse—has been theoretically described. The generated waves have terahertz frequencies and their total energy increases with an increase in the effective frequency of electron–electron collisions and with a decrease in their density.

It is proposed to consider the scalings of anomalous transport (superdiffusion), determined experimentally in turbulent plasma of the Earth’s magnetosphere and laboratory plasma of thermonuclear facilities and processed using modern statistical cascade models of strong turbulence with intermittency, also within the approach of physical kinetics to the theory of plasma turbulence.

We have found the time dependence of the ablation depth of aluminium irradiated by a femtosecond laser pulse. It is shown to what extent an increase in the radiation energy flux density leads to an increase in the quasi-stationary value of the ablation depth. By reducing the aluminium film thickness down to one hundred nanometres and less, the ablation depth significantly increases. At the same time, the quasi-stationary value of the ablation depth of a thin film is obtained due to the removal of heat from the focal spot region.

Josephson sandwich is considered, along which the radiating chain of vortices travels. Uniform movement of the chain is supported by bias current. The current-voltage characteristic connecting this current with the voltage at the Josephson junction is found. It is shown that when the current increases, generation of electromagnetic waves with frequency weakly dependent on the current is possible.

Generation efficiency of THz radiation in the skin layer of metal increases significantly when a nanolayer of dielectric is deposited on the metal surface. Additional amplification of the generation occurs if a weakly focused femtosecond pulse affects a structure where electron collision frequency in the metal is greater than the inverse duration of the pulse.

The interaction between electromagnetic radiation and a photoionized plasma slab with an anisotropic electron velocity distribution is studied. It is shown that the fields of leaky modes are amplified due to the development of aperiodic instability in the slab, which leads to an increase in both the reflected and transmitted fields. The transmitted field can significantly increase only if the slab thickness does not exceed the ratio of the speed of light to the electron plasma frequency, whereas there is no upper bound on the slab thickness for the reflected signal to be amplified.

A kinetic theory of low-frequency currents induced in plasma by an ultrashort high-frequency radiation pulse is developed. General expressions for the currents flowing along the propagation direction of the pulse and along the gradient of the field energy density are analyzed both analytically and numerically for pulse durations longer or shorter than or comparable with the electron collision time in plasma. It is demonstrated that the nonlinear current flowing along the gradient of the field energy density can be described correctly only when the modification of the isotropic part of the electron distribution function is taken into account.

It is shown that an experimental decrease in the reflection of a probe femtosecond pulse from an aluminum film heated by a higher-power femtosecond pulse can be quantitatively described taking into account the inhomogeneous distribution of the laser pulse field in the film and the evolution of the electron and lattice temperature during absorption of the heating inhomogeneous field. Analysis of the electron temperature evolution on the heated film surface combined with modern concepts about the influence of a surface volume charge on thermal emission gave the relation between the amount of emitted electrons and experimental data on the heating of the aluminum film by the femtosecond pulse.

A nanoscale chaotic relief structure appears as a result of subthreshold single-shot femtosecond laser ablation of gold films in the regimes of fabrication of microbumps and nanospikes, but only for a relatively thick film. The observed nanoablation tendency versus film thickness makes it possible to suppose the existence of a sub-surface temperature maximum in thicker gold films and its absence within thinner film, which results from competing evaporative cooling and electronic heat conduction, as demonstrated by numerical simulations of the thermal dynamics.

We have developed a theory of generation of low-frequency radiation and surface waves under the pondermotive action of a femtosecond laser pulse irradiating a conductor along the normal and focused by a cylindrical lens. It is shown that for the chosen focusing method and specified values of laser pulse duration and flux density it is possible to significantly increase the total energy of both surface waves and low-frequency radiation. (terahertz radiation)

We have studied the temperature evolution of electrons and the lattice of a metal nanofilm interacting with a femtosecond s- or p-polarised pulse. It is shown that even if the film thickness is greater than the skin-layer depth, the temperature distribution during the pulse action may be close to the uniform one because of the high electron thermal conductivity, which leads to a rapid redistribution of energy over the film thickness. (nanostructures)

The theory of generation of the low-frequency radiation due to ponderomotive action of a focused laser pulse that is incident on a conductor is developed. Spectral, angular, and energy characteristics of the low-frequency radiation and the spatiotemporal structure of the low-frequency pulse are analyzed.

The growth rate of aperiodic instability of transverse and longitudinal-transverse electromagnetic field perturbations in plasma with an anisotropic bi-Maxwellian electron velocity distribution is studied. The boundaries of the instability domains in wave vector space are found, and the growth rates of field perturbations with configurations different from that corresponding to the maximum growth rate are determined.

The widths of Cherenkov radiation spectrum lines of Josephson vortex trains in extended sandwiches are determined. Conditions are determined such that the line widths owing to a finite train length are comparable to or less than the line widths owing to thermal fluctuations.

We have studied the possibility of exciting surface waves in a conductor, which is irradiated by a focused femtosecond laser pulse incident along the normal to the surface. The time-dependent ponderomotive force is shown to lead to the excitation of surface waves in the terahertz frequency range. It is also shown that the total energy and the pulse amplitude of the surface waves increases with increasing effective electron collision frequency. (terahertz radiation)

Nonlinear currents slowly varying in time are found in the skin layer of a metal irradiated by short laser pulses. The low-frequency field generated by the nonlinear currents in metal and vacuum is studied. The spectral composition, energy and shape of the low-frequency radiation pulse are described. (nonlinear optical phenomena)

Specific features of the interaction of a relatively weak electromagnetic pulse with a nonisothermal current-carrying plasma in which the electron drift velocity is much higher than the ion-acoustic velocity, but lower than the electron thermal velocity, are studied. If the state of the plasma with ion-acoustic turbulence does not change during the pulse action, the field penetrates into the plasma in the ordinary diffusion regime, but the diffusion coefficient in this case is inversely proportional to the anomalous conductivity. If, during the pulse action, the particle temperatures and the current-driving field change due to turbulent heating, the field penetrates into the plasma in the subdiffusion regime. It is shown how the presence of subdiffusion can be detected by measuring the reflected field.

The reflection of a test electromagnetic pulse from the plasma formed as a result of tunnel ionization of atoms in the field of a circularly polarized high-power radiation pulse is analyzed using the kinetic approach to describe electron motion. It is shown that the reflected pulse is significantly amplified due to the development of Weibel instability. The amplification efficiency is determined by the maximum value of the instability growth rate, which depends on the degree of anisotropy of the photoelectron distribution function.

The growth rate of Weibel instability in a plasma interacting with a high-frequency pulse with a duration less or comparable with the electron mean free time is determined. The growth rate is shown to decrease with decreasing pulse duration. It is found that instability can develop after the short pulse is switched off and the generated magnetic field no longer affects electron motion in the high-frequency field.

Heating of electrons and lattice of aluminum caused by interaction with a femtosecond laser pulse is described quantitatively. Coefficients of absorption of s- and p-polarized pulses are calculated. Frequencies of electron-electron collisions in aluminum are determined from comparison of experimentally measured and calculated coefficients of absorption.

The generation of a quasistationary magnetic field in a plasma interacting with a weakly focused low-intensity short laser pulse has been studied. It has been shown that the magnetic field changes direction at times comparable with the free path time of effective electrons. Generation also occurs after the switching off of the short pulse and the maximum field is proportional to the duration of the pulse and is reached at times larger than the free path time of the suprathermal electrons.

The theory of the generation of low-frequency radiation under the pondermotive action of a femtosecond laser pulse on dense hot plasma is developed. It is shown that, at fairly high plasma temperatures, when electron-electron collisions are rare and the low-frequency field is excited under conditions of the anomalous skin effect, the generation efficiency can be close to maximal. The optimal generation conditions are achieved if the carrier frequency of the laser pulse is close to the plasma frequency and the pulse is tightly focused. Under irradiation by pulses with durations of tens to hundreds femtoseconds, terahertz radiation is generated in a broad angular range.

Electromagnetic radiation from an anisotropic plasma slab formed by ionization of matter in the field of a high-power femtosecond pulse is studied. It is shown that the growth of initial field perturbations in the course of Weibel instability is accompanied by the generation of nonmonochromatic radiation with a characteristic frequency on the order of the instability growth rate. It is found that perturbations with characteristic scale lengths less than or on the order of the ratio of the speed of light to the Langmuir frequency are excited and radiated most efficiently, provided that the slab is thicker than this ratio.

The fields produced by a Josephson vortex moving in a sandwich placed into an anisotropic dielectric are investigated. When the vortex velocity exceeds the velocity of light in the direction of the normal to the sandwich surface, Cherenkov emission of electromagnetic waves propagating from the sandwich to the bulk of the dielectric takes place. The Poynting vector of outgoing waves is determined. It is shown that the radiation directivity considerably depends on the degree of anisotropy in the permittivity. The radiation loss power of the vortex is determined, and the relation between the transport current and the vortex velocity is established.

The effects of rapid nonuniform heating of electrons on reflection of a p-polarised pulse from the metal are quantitatively described. Under conditions of normal and high-frequency skin effects, the absorption coefficient and phase shift of the reflected wave are calculated numerically upon irradiation of a gold target.

Anomalous heat flux inhibition under high frequency radiation pulse absorption in electron–ion collisions is revealed for plasma with multiply charged ions. The inhibition takes place in time moments greater than momentum relaxation time, but less than energy relaxation time of the electrons, which give main contribution to the heat flux value.

Explicit expressions for ion kinetic equations were derived considering ion-acoustic turbulence of plasma, when the presence of two ion types enhances stimulated scattering of ionacoustic waves on ions.