Ponderomotive forces and potentials in two species relativistic plasmas

摘要

The ponderomotive force associated with a light wave of variable amplitude drivesmany phenomena that occur in inertial confinement fusion and particle accelerationexperiments. The existing formula for the ponderomotive force was derived under theassumption that the quiver speed of electrons oscillating in the applied electric field ismuch less than the speed of light. With the advent of intense laser pulses, it is importantto extend this formula to electron quiver speeds that are comparable to the speed oflight. We investigate the interactions of light fields with particles in two speciesplasmas. The equation of motion of a charged particle in an electromagnetic field andthe motion of a single particle in a plane wave is investigated. Furthermore, nonrelativistic and relativistic ponderomotive force and potential is obtained.