Electromagnetic Wave Scattering from a High-Temperature Plasma

Electromagnetic wave scattering from a tenuous high-temperature plasma is studied for cases where relativistic corrections must be included in the analysis to obtain a valid description for the spatial and spectral distribution of the scattered radiation. The peak of the spectrum of scattered radiation is shifted toward a shorter wavelength, e.g., the peak of the back-scattered radiation from a 50-keV plasma is at 4000 Å for 6943-Å incident radiation. The spectrum is no longer symmetrical about the scattering peak. It is also shown that the correct spectrum of scattering for a confined high-temperature plasma is not the same as the spectrum obtained using the model infinite plasma irradiated by a homogeneous plane wave. The difference in these two situations is a term of order v/c which is negligible only for the zero-order case (i.e., v/c ≪ 1). Thus, experiments to study the scattering of laser beams from high-temperature plasma should take account of these effects.