Observation of Plasma Ion Oscillations in a Laser-Produced Plasma

Experiments with 6943-{} light scattered from a high-density carbon plasma have resulted in the spectroscopic observation of ion wings produced by plasma ion oscillations. For an energy density of 200 J/cm² and a pulse half-width of 90 nsec, the maximum separation of the ion wings was found to be 0.9 {}. This corresponds to a plasma electron temperature of more than 25 eV and a density of 10¹⁹ electrons/cm³.