RESEARCH ARTICLE | JUNE 01 1998

Phase conjugation in the low reflectivity regime by nearly

degenerate four-wave mixing in a homogeneous plasma
G. P. Gupta; B. K. Sinha

Physics of Plasmas 5, 2252–2256 (1998)

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.872898

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PHYSICS OF PLASMAS VOLUME 5, NUMBER 6 JUNE 1998

Phase conjugation in the low reflectivity regime by nearly degenerate

four-wave mixing in a homogeneous plasma
G. P. Gupta and B. K. Sinha
Laser and Plasma Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai—400 085, India
~Received 24 October 1997; accepted 29 January 1998!
Accounting for both the long- and short-wavelength density gratings by considering the
polarizations of all four electromagnetic waves parallel to each other and a finite tilt angle between
the signal and pump waves, the steady-state phase conjugation in the low reflectivity regime by
nearly degenerate four-wave mixing in a homogeneous plasma is investigated. The response of the
density gratings caused by the beating of the signal and pump waves is considered from the theory
of stimulated Brillouin scattering in a two-component plasma. The expression for the power
reflectivity of the conjugate wave for the arbitrary difference frequency between the signal and
pump waves and that for resonant four-wave mixing are obtained. Numerical results have been
discussed in light of the experiment reported in the literature. It is noted that the measured values
of the difference frequency corresponding to either density grating resonance, and the corresponding
maximum reflectivity of the conjugate wave, provide a diagnostic tool for the electron temperature
and the electron–ion temperature ratio, respectively. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.

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@S1070-664X~98!01005-2#

I. INTRODUCTION considered only the long-wavelength density grating in their

Phase conjugation by four-wave mixing ~FWM! of elec-
tromagnetic ~EM! waves in plasmas has been investigated
during the last decade, both theoretically1–7 and
experimentally.8–11 It is a process in which two strong coun-
terpropagating EM pump waves stimulate a plasma and a
phase conjugate EM wave is generated, through the nonlin-
ear interaction, after the reflection of a signal EM wave in-
cident on the plasma. The theoretical studies of this process
have been carried out under varying conditions, such as; de-
generate FWM,1,3 where all four EM waves have the same
frequency; resonant FWM,2,4,5 where the two pump waves
have the same frequency and the signal wave relative to the
pump wave has a slight difference frequency D f equal to the
frequency of the ion-acoustic mode of the plasma; and, reso-
nant and off-resonant D f in nearly degenerate FWM.6,7
Varying conditions of the polarizations of the waves have
been treated. Williams et al.4 considered the two pump po-
larizations orthogonal to each other, along with the signal
wave polarized parallel to the pump wave, propagating for-
ward relative to the signal wave, thus selecting the long-
wavelength density grating. Goldman and Williams5 selected
the short-wavelength density grating by having the two
pump polarizations orthogonal to each other, along with the
signal wave polarized parallel to the pump wave, propagat-
ing backward relative to the signal wave. Both the long- and
short-wavelength density gratings have been considered in
Refs. 3, 6, and 7, implying that all four EM waves are po-
larized parallel to each other. Domier and Luhmann11 have
reported the detailed experimental measurements of phase
conjugation in a plasma by nearly degenerate FWM for the
case in which all four EM waves are polarized parallel to
each other. Although both the long- and short-wavelength
density gratings existed in their experimental condition, they
theoretical analysis and obtained the corresponding expres-
sion for the resonance conjugate power. Since they measured
the conjugate data as a function of D f , showing two reso-
nances corresponding to the two density gratings, it is inter-
esting to analyze their results based on theory that incorpo-
rates both the density gratings and the off-resonant and
resonant values of D f in the nearly degenerate FWM case.
In the present paper we develop the theory of steady-
state phase conjugation by nearly degenerate FWM in a ho-
mogeneous plasma, by taking into account both the long-
and short-wavelength density gratings corresponding to
varying values of D f . We limit ourselves to the low-power
reflectivity regime (!1) of the conjugate wave, which has
been the case in all plasma experiments to date,9–11 by ne-
glecting the insignificant contribution of the conjugate wave
to these density gratings in this regime. The consideration of
this contribution as considered in Refs. 4, 5, and 11 is nec-
essary only for the case in which the power reflectivity is
comparable to or larger than unity. The long-wavelength
density grating arising due to the beating of the signal and
forward pump waves and the short-wavelength density grat-
ing caused due to the beating of the signal and backward
pump waves are represented from the theory of stimulated
Brillouin scattering in a two-component plasma. The expres-
sion for the power reflectivity R of the conjugate wave for
arbitrary D f , and that for resonant FWM under the assump-
tion of constant pump intensities, are then obtained. We have
calculated R as a function of D f for various parameters of
the plasma and EM waves pertaining to the experimental
conditions of the work in Ref. 11. Our numerical results
show the two resonances of R, the first corresponding to
long-wavelength density grating and the second correspond-
ing to short-wavelength density grating, as observed by

1070-664X/98/5(6)/2252/5/$15.00 2252 © 1998 American Institute of Physics

Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 5, No. 6, June 1998 G. P. Gupta and B. K. Sinha 2253

Domier and Luhmann.11 It is noted that the measured values
of D f , corresponding to either of the peaks, and the corre-
sponding reflectivity provide a diagnostic tool to infer the
electron temperature T e and the ratio T e /T i of electron and
ion temperatures, respectively. It is further observed that our
theoretical estimates of the resonance conjugate power for a
certain T e and T e /T i , in close agreement with those ob-
served by Domier and Luhmann,11 are substantially lower
than those predicted from the theoretical expression given by
Domier and Luhmann.11
II. THEORETICAL FORMULATION
A. Physical model
We follow the slab geometry5,12 for phase conjugation
by FWM. A homogeneous, warm, collisionless, underdense
plasma is considered within the slab of width L, whose nor-
B. Equations of the density gratings
The nonlinear interaction between two of the four EM
waves in the plasma results in the low-frequency plasma
density fluctuations referred to as density gratings. As dis-
cussed in Ref. 5, the two density gratings are long-
wavelength density grating d n L , with frequency and wave
vector (2D v ,kL )5( v 0 2 v s ,k2 2ks ); and, short-
wavelength density grating d n S , with frequency and wave
vector (2D v ,kS )5( v 0 2 v s ,k1 2ks ). Because of the
physical conditions given above, both of them are important
here. The long-and short-wavelength density gratings, also
called the transmission and reflection density gratings, re-
spectively, in Refs. 3, 6, and 7, are expressed from the
quasineutral, low-frequency density response in the stimu-
lated Brillouin scattering process as4
d n L ~ 2D v ,k L ! 5n 0 n L ~ 2D v ,k L ! E s* E 2 exp~ 2ikL –r! ,
~3a!

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mal is parallel to the z axis. The plasma consisting of elec- d n S ~ 2D v ,k S ! 5n 0 n S ~ 2D v ,k S ! E s* E 1 exp~ 2ikS –r! ,
trons with the unperturbed density n 0 and ions with the ~3b!
charge state Z is stimulated by two strong counterpropagat-
ing EM pump waves, the backward pump wave E1 and the where
forward pump wave E2 , both of angular frequency v 0 . A
weak signal EM wave Es of angular frequency v s 5 v 0
1D v (D v 52 p D f ), incident on the plasma at an angle u
n g ~ 2D v ,k g ! 5 S v 2Pi
16p m e n 0 v 20
DS k 2g
~ D v ! 2 12i g g D v 2 v 2g
D ,
~4!
relative to the pump wave E2 , traverses the plasma along the
z axis from the front face at z50 to the back face at z5L of k L 5 u k2 2ks u '2k s sin~ u /2! , ~5!
the slab. The phase conjugate EM wave Ee of angular fre-
quency v c 5 v 0 2D v , propagating backward relative to Es , k S 5 u k1 2ks u '2k s cos~ u /2! . ~6!
is generated by the nonlinear interaction in the stimulated Here, the subscript g5(L,S) refers to the two density grat-
plasma. We consider the nearly degenerate FWM interaction ings, v pi 5(4 p n 0 e 2 Z/m i ) 1/2 is the ion plasma frequency,
with D v ! v 0 in the steady state and take the case where all 2e is the electron charge, m e (m i ) is the electron ~ion! mass
four EM waves are polarized parallel to each other and are and v g and g g are the frequency and damping rate of the
represented as12 ion-acoustic wave. Accounting for the thermal motion of
Ea ~ r,t ! 5 21 Ea ~ r! exp@ i ~ v a t2ka –ra !# 1c.c., ~1! both the plasma electrons and ions, v g and g g in a collision-
less plasma are expressed from the corresponding dispersion
where c.c. denotes the complex conjugate, ra is the position relation13 under the condition ZT e .T i and k g l D→0 ~l D
vector along ka , the subscript a 5(1,2,s,c) refers to the two being the electron Debye length! as
pumps, the signal and the conjugate waves, respectively, and
the ka ’s are the respective local wave vectors, satisfying the v g 5k g c s , ~7!
following phase conditions:
g g 5 ~ p /8! 1/2v g ~ 113T i /ZT e ! 1/2

FS D S D S DG
k1 1k2 50, ~2a! 1/2 3/2
Zm e ZT e ZT e 3
ks 1kc 5Dk, Dk5 u Dku 52 m D v /c, ~2b! 3 1 exp 2 2 , ~8!
mi Ti 2T i 2
where m is the plasma refractive index and c is the speed of where c s 5 @ (ZT e 13T i )/m i # 1/2 is the ion-acoustic speed.
light. The local value of k a is related to its value in vacuum Equations ~3! and ~4! yield that the density grating reaches a
(k a v ) as k a 5k a v m . The phase mismatch Dk on the right- maximum when the resonance condition D v 5 v g is satis-
hand side of Eq. ~2b! arises due to the difference frequency fied. Thus, one has two resonances corresponding to the two
D f between the signal and pump waves. We limit our con- density gratings.
sideration to the practical case, where the reflectivity of the
conjugate wave is low and the depletion of the pump inten-
sities is negligible, which require the ordering of the wave
amplitudes as E c !E s !(E 1 ,E 2 ). We further consider E 1 C. Electromagnetic wave equations
and E 2 as real and constant while E s and E c as complex and The nonlinear wave equation for a general EM wave E
slowly varying with z. The above physical conditions are in a plasma is obtained from the Maxwell’s equations as5

S D
considered in light of the experimental arrangement em-
ployed by Domier and Luhmann11 in their investigation of ]2
c 2¹ 22 2 v 2pe E5 v 2pe ~ d n e /n 0 ! E, ~9!
FWM. ]t2
2254 Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 5, No. 6, June 1998 G. P. Gupta and B. K. Sinha

where v pe 5(4 p n 0 e 2 /m e ) 1/2 is the electron plasma fre-
quency and d n e is the effective electron density perturbation.
In case of low-frequency density fluctuations, as caused by
the beating of two EM waves, we have
d n e' d n L1 d n S . ~10!
D. Power reflectivity of the conjugate wave
The power reflectivity R of the conjugate wave is de-
fined as the ratio of the power output of the conjugate wave
to the power input of the signal wave. We obtain the steady-
state expression for R by using Eq. ~15! as

Under the slowing varying envelope approximation ~SVEA!,

represented by the conditions
R5 U U
E c~ 0 !
E s* ~ 0 !
2
5
uku2
b cot ~ b L ! 1 ~ m D v /c ! 2
2 2 . ~17!

U UU U
When the condition of resonance, D v 5 v g , corresponding
] 2E ]E
2 ! k !uk 2E u, ~11! to either grating is satisfied, the maximum value of k be-
]z ]z comes k g , which is primarily due to either grating, and is
the second-order nonlinear wave equation ~9! reduces to a obtained as
first-order SVEA equation. Using Eqs. ~3a! and ~3b! for the
density gratings and the phase matching conditions @Eqs.
~2a! and ~2b!#, the steady-state SVEA equations for the sig-
k g 5i S DS DS D S
Z
32p
n0
nc
k gc s
gg
l 0r e
m m i c 2s D E 1E 2 , ~18!

nal and conjugate wave amplitudes are obtained as where r e 5e 2 /mc 2 is the classical electron radius and n c is
the critical electron density at which v pe 5 v 0 . Under the
dE s*
S 2i m ~ D v ! z
D common practical limit D v /c! u k u , as discussed in Ref. 5,

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5i k E c exp 2 , ~12a! Eq. ~17! reduces to
dz c

S D
R5tan2 ~ u k u L ! ' ~ u k u L ! 2 . ~19!
dE c 2i m ~ D v ! z
5i k E s* exp , ~12b! Using Eq. ~18! in Eq. ~19!, the power reflectivity correspond-
dz c
ing to the resonant FWM, denoted by R m , is obtained as

F S DS DS D S D G
where
1 n0 k gc s l 0r e 2

S D
R m5 E 1 E 2 ZL . ~20!
v 2pe 32p nc gg m m i c 2s
k 52 ~ n L1 n S !E 1E 2 , ~13a!
2k s c 2 For comparison, we reproduce the corresponding expression

S D
R m obtained from the work of Domier and Luhmann11 under
l 0 v 2pe
52 ~ n L1 n S !E 1E 2 . ~13b! the low reflectivity condition in a singly ionized plasma as

F S DS DS D S D G
4pc m2
1 n0 k gc s l 0r e 2

In writing Eq. ~13b! we have considered k s 'k 0 m 5

R DL E 1E 2L . ~21!
8p nc gg m i c 2s
5(2 p /l 0 ) m where l 0 is the wavelength in the vacuum of
either pump wave. Equations ~12a! and ~12b! are similar to It is noted by comparing Eqs. ~20! and ~21! that the estimate
those given by Eq. ~7! in Ref. 4, with the following differ- of the resonance power reflectivity, hence the resonance con-
ences: In Ref. 4 the temporal dependence of the wave am- jugate power for a given signal power, from the expression
plitude and the contribution of the conjugate wave to the two given by Domier and Luhmann,11 is 16m 2 times that from
density gratings have been retained. Equations ~12a! and the corresponding expression obtained in the present work in
~12b! are solved using the boundary conditions a plasma with a similar charge state.

E s* ~ z50 ! 5E s* ~ 0 ! , E c ~ z5L ! 50, ~14! III. NUMERICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

and the solution is given by12 The computation of R requires the amplitudes E 1 and E 2
of the pump waves E1 and E2 for given pump wave intensi-
E c~ 0 ! ik ties. With EM waves as described by Eq. ~1!, the wave in-
52 , ~15!
E s* ~ 0 ! @ b cot~ b L ! 2i ~ D v ! m /c # tensity I a is related to E a as I a 5(c m /8p )E a2 . Writing this
expression in practical units, E a is expressed as E a
where (Gaussian)59.166731022 3I a (W/cm2)/ m , which has
b 5 @ u k u 2 1 ~ m D v /c ! 2 # 1/2. ~16! been used in the present calculations for various input pa-
rameters relevant to the experimental results reported by
This solution of the wave equation for the signal and conju- Domier and Luhmann,11 who performed experiments on
gate wave amplitudes is somewhat different from that given FWM and phase conjugation of microwaves in a H1 3 ion
in Refs. 4 and 5 corresponding to unequal pump intensities, filament discharge plasma stimulated by high-power 3.24
owing to the fact that we have considered the two density GHz pump waves with a tilt angle u '38° between the pump
gratings and assumed the low reflectivity regime of the con- and signal waves. The value of L corresponding to this tilt
jugate wave, neglecting the latter’s contribution to the den- angle is '70 cm. The area of metallic horn used to launch
sity gratings; whereas in Refs. 4 and 5 one of the two density the forward pump power P 2 is '720 cm2, and that of the
gratings and the contribution of the conjugate wave to the horn used to launch the backward pump power P 1 is
grating are considered. '2550 cm2. Typical H1 3 plasmas produced are reported to
Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 5, No. 6, June 1998
FIG. 1. Power reflectivity R of the phase conjugate wave as a function of
the difference frequency D f for various values of T e at the pump power
levels of P 1 510 kW and P 2 50.75P 1 , u 538°, n 0 /n c 50.2, T e /T i 57, and
L570 cm.
have T e of 2.0–3.2 eV, T i of 0.15–0.25 eV, and n 0 of
0.1– 1031010 cm23. The value of n c is estimated to be
'1331010 cm23. They have measured the conjugate wave
power P c for various values of P 1 , P 2 , P s , and D f . For
comparison with our theoretical estimates, we first consider a
typical case in which they used P 1 510 kW, P 2 50.75P 1 ,
and P s 51.02 kW, and observed the maximum value of P c
equal to 1.4 W ~the corresponding maximum value of R
being equal to 1.431023 ! for D f 5200 kHz in the plasma
with n 0 /n c 50.2. Figure 1 shows the power reflectivity R,
calculated by using Eq. ~17!, of the phase conjugate wave as
a function of D f for various values of T e at T e /T i 57, show-
ing the effect of T e on the profiles of R. The corresponding
results for various values of T e /T i at T e 53 eV are depicted
in Fig. 2, showing the effect of T e /T i on the profiles of R.
We have plotted the values of R only for frequency-upshifted
signal waves, as they are the same for both upshifted and
downshifted signal waves, owing to their dependence on
(D v ) 2 . As seen from Figs. 1 and 2, there are two reso-
nances: the first one corresponding to the long-wavelength
density grating, and the second one corresponding to the
short-wavelength grating, as observed in Ref. 11. The opti-
mum value of D f corresponding to either resonance in-
creases and the corresponding peak height of the R profile
decreases with increasing values of T e at a given T e /T i ,
whereas the increasing values of T e /T i at a given T e give
rise to the increasing peak heights, with practically no
change in the optimum value of D f . As the latter is changed
only by a variation in T e , unlike the peak height, which is
G. P. Gupta and B. K. Sinha 2255
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FIG. 2. Power reflectivity R of the phase conjugate wave as a function of
the difference frequency D f for various values of T e /T i at the pump power
levels of P 1 510 kW and P 2 50.75 kW, u 538°, n 0 /n c 50.2, T e 53 eV,
and L570 cm.
altered by a variation in both T e and T e /T i , one can first
infer the value of T e , which yields a theoretical estimate of
the optimum D f , in close agreement with the experimental
value. One can then find the value of T e /T i for this value of
T e , which results in a theoretical value of the peak height
close to the experimental one. For example, the value of T e
equal to 3 eV predicts the theoretical value of the optimum
D f of '210 kHz corresponding to the short-wavelength
grating resonance, and the value of T e /T i equal to 7 predicts
the corresponding maximum value of R of '1.231023 ,
which are in close agreement with the observed data. Thus,
the measured values of the optimum D f and the correspond-
ing maximum reflectivity of the conjugate wave provide a
diagnostic tool for T e and T e /T i , respectively.
In Fig. 3, we have shown the resonance conjugate power
P c corresponding to the short-wavelength grating resonance
as a function of the pump power P 1 at P 2 50.75P 1 , P s
51.02 kW, T e 53 eV, and T e /T i 57. The solid curve shows
the theoretical results from the present work, as given by Eq.
~20!, while the dashed curve shows those from the theoreti-
cal expression given by Domier and Luhmann,11 as repre-
sented by Eq. ~21!. The solid circles are the experimental
data reported by Domier and Luhmann.11 As seen from the
figure, our theoretical estimates with the chosen values of T e
and T e /T i , in close agreement with the experimental data,
are substantially lower than the corresponding values pre-
dicted from the theoretical expression for the resonance con-
jugate power given by Domier and Luhmann.11
2256 Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 5, No. 6, June 1998 G. P. Gupta and B. K. Sinha

jugate wave for arbitrary D f and that for resonant FWM,

where D f equals the frequency of the ion-acoustic mode of
the plasma under the assumption of constant intensities of
the pump waves. This assumption, along with the consider-
ation of the low reflectivity regime, limits the applicability of
the expressions obtained to the initial evolution of the con-
jugate wave with its amplitude much smaller than that of the
signal wave, which has been the case in all plasma experi-
ments on the subject reported so far.9–11 We have discussed
our numerical results in light of the experiments carried out
by Domier and Luhmann.11 It is noted that the measured
values of the optimum D f corresponding to either density
grating resonance and the corresponding maximum reflectiv-
ity of the conjugate wave provide a diagnostic tool for T e
and T e /T i , respectively. From the comparison of our theo-
retical estimates of the resonance conjugate power with the
corresponding predictions from the theoretical expression
given by Domier and Luhmann11 and with their experimental
data, it is further noted that our estimates for T e 53 eV and

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T e /T i 57 are in close agreement with the experimental data,
unlike those from their expression, which are substantially
FIG. 3. Resonance conjugate power P c as a function of the pump power P 1
at P 2 50.75P 1 , P a 51.02 kW, u 538°, n 0 /n c 50.2, T e 53 eV, T e /T i 57, higher than our estimates.
and L570 cm for the resonant case, where the difference frequency D f
equals the short-wavelength density grating frequency. The solid circles are
the experimental data reported by Domier and Luhmann.11
1
J. F. Federici and D. K. Mansfield, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 3, 1588 ~1986!.
2
I. Nebenzahl, A. Ron, D. Tzach, and N. Rostoker, Phys. Fluids 31, 2144
~1988!.
3
G. C. Papen and J. A. Tataronis, J. Plasma Phys. 42, 457 ~1989!.
IV. CONCLUSIONS 4
E. Williams, D. Lininger, and M. Goldman, Phys. Fluids B 1, 1561,2535
We have developed the theory of steady-state phase con- ~1989!.
5
M. V. Goldman and E. A. Williams, Phys. Fluids B 3, 751 ~1991!.
jugation in the low reflectivity regime by nearly degenerate 6
J. Lahiri and B. K. Sinha, Phys. Plasmas 2, 1696 ~1995!.
FWM in a homogeneous plasma by taking into account both 7
G. P. Gupta and B. K. Sinha, Phys. Plasmas 3, 3614 ~1996!.
the long- and short-wavelength density gratings correspond- 8
T. Lehner, Phys. Scr. 39, 595 ~1989!.
9
ing to off-resonant and resonant values of the difference fre- Y. Kitigawa, R. L. Savage, Jr., and C. Joshi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 151
~1989!.
quency D f between the signal and pump waves with a finite 10
S. M. Cameron, M. D. Tracy, J. S. de groot, K. G. Estabrook, R.
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11
C. W. Domier and N. C. Luhmann, Jr., Phys. Fluids B 5, 2398 ~1993!.
12
Optical Phase Conjugation, edited by R. A. Fisher ~Academic, New York,
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1983!, pp. 29 and 44.
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V. D. Shafranov, in Reviews of Plasma Physics, edited by M. A. Leon-
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