Harmonic generation in the interaction of laser with a magnetized overdense plasma

Abstract

The mechanism of harmonic generation in both O and X-mode configurations for a magnetized plasma has been explored here in detail with the help of Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations. A detailed characterization of both the reflected and transmitted electromagnetic radiation propagating in the bulk of the plasma has been carried out for this purpose. The efficiency of harmonic generation is shown to increase with the incident laser intensity. Dependency of harmonic efficiency has also been found on magnetic field strength. This work demonstrates that there is an optimum value of the magnetic field at which the efficiency of harmonic generation maximizes. The observations are in agreement with theoretical analysis. For O-mode configuration, this is compelling as the harmonic generation provides for a mechanism by which laser energy can propagate inside an overdense plasma region.