CASCADE PROCESSES IN A PLASMA OSCILLATOR

A theoretical and numerical analysis is made of the dynamics of nonlin ear electron-beam scattering of a wave reflected by the emitting devic e of a plasma oscillator. It is shown that a counterpropagating plasma wave can interact nonlinearly with other waveguide modes of the syste m and with charge-density beam waves, leading to changes in the operat ion of the oscillator. It is established by means of a numerical simul ation that the generation efficiency is reduced as a result of scatter ing of the counterpropagating wave and stimulated emission of a strong -potential plasma wave with phase velocity upsilon(ph)=omega/k(z) much less than c. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.