BOOK REVIEW: The Interaction of High-Power Lasers With Plasmas

This book deals with the fundamental physics of numerous plasma processes that occur during laser plasma interactions. The subject matter is related to both basic plasma physics and applied physics. The author starts with the essentials of high power lasers whose duration ranges from nanoseconds to femtoseconds, and then builds up an introduction to plasma physics by describing ionization, well known transport coefficients (electrical and thermal conductivities, diffusion, viscosity, energy transport etc), Debye length, plasma oscillations and the properties of the laser induced plasma medium. The book contains plasma dynamical equations for describing the hydrodynamic and kinetic phenomena, and treating particle dynamics by computer simulation. The ponderomotive force is discussed for small amplitude electromagnetic fields in an unmagnetized plasma. However, for intense laser beams one should obtain new expressions for the relativistic ponderomotive force, which are totally absent from this book. Furthermore, in laser plasma interactions strong magnetic fields are produced which will drastically modify the relativistic ponderomotive force expressions. The physics of collisional absorption of electromagnetic waves and their propagation in a nonuniform unmagnetized plasma has been elegantly described. The phenomena of the resonance absorption of laser light is also discussed. Simple models for the parametric processes are developed, while there are no discussions of cavitons/envelope solitons. The latter are usually regarded as possible nonlinear states of the modulational/filamentational instabilities. Rather, the author presents a description of a K-dV equation for nonlinear ion-acoustic waves without the laser field. The description of a non-envelope ion-acoustic soliton has already appeared in many plasma physics textbooks. The book contains a short chapter on the self-similar plasma expansion in vacuum, double layers, and charged particle acceleration. However, the author has not touched on the plasma based high energy charged particle accelerators, which involve short intense laser pulses and which are at the frontier of modern plasma physics. There is a nice chapter dealing with laser induced magnetic fields and waves in magnetized plasmas. The physics and mathematical details of the electron energy transport and heat waves, which are of significant interest in inertial confinement fusion, are described in depth. Comprehensive studies of shock waves and rarefaction waves are presented, and their relevance to high power pulsed laser drivers is discussed. Finally, the author has given a lucid description of hydrodynamic instabilities (i.e. the Rayleigh-Taylor, the Richtmyer-Meshkov, the Kelvin-Helmholtz), which are of great importance in laser-plasma interactions and in astrophysics. It would have been nice if the author would have also included a more physical description of the nonlinear evolution of those instabilities which play a significant role in the formation of fingers, bubbles and vortices in laboratories and in astrophysical settings. The book is well written and will serve as a valuable asset for graduate students and physicists working in the area of laser plasma interactions and high energy astrophysics. It should also be useful for teaching masters level courses on laser plasma interactions. The reviewer highly recommends the book to the interested reader. P K Shukla