High Power Laser-Matter Interaction [Hardcover]

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.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.

From the reviews:

The aim of the present work is the description of the main aspects of laser-matter interaction & . In the book many considerations are added which are not covered in former textbooks or monographies. & The book is intended for students of graduate courses, but it may be also useful for scientists as a reference book. (Claudia-Veronika Meister, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1221, 2011)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 l6