Laser beat-wave excitation of plasma waves in a clustered gas

Plasma wave excitation by beating two lasers in a plasma is inhibited by the presence of clusters. The clusters undergo Coulomb explosion under the combined fields of the two lasers. The cluster susceptibility thus acquires a temporal variation. As the lasers exert ponderomotive forces on plasma electrons and cluster electrons and drive a plasma wave at the beat frequency of the two lasers, the time evolution of cluster susceptibility detunes the plasma resonance limiting the amplitude of the plasma wave.