Executive Summary : | Laser plasma interaction studies have a lot of importance both for the pursuit of fundamental frontier science as well as a variety of applications. These studies have, however, so far been restricted to the unmagnetized plasma domain. This has been so as it was not possible to have strong magnetic fields, to elicit a magnetized response from the plasma species at the laser frequency. Recently, magnetic fields of the order of Kilo Tesla (for nanosecond time scales and at mm length scale) have been produced. Furthermore, pulsed high power low frequency CO2 lasers are now also available. At the CO2 laser frequency (wavelength of 10 microns) with Kilo Tesla Magnetic fields the lighter electron species will get magnetized. This has thus opened up a possibility to investigate the new physical realm of laser interacting with magnetized plasma. The magnetized plasma offers a lot of flexibility. The existence of several passbands permits the laser to propagate inside even an overdense plasma medium, unlike the un-magnetized case. In a previous proposal (CRG/2018/000624) which is to end by July 5th 2022, a new mechanism of laser energy absorption directly to ions have been demonstrated. This was identified to be occurring due to lower hybrid electrostatic waves excitation resulting from the difference between the E cross B drift between ions and electrons when the laser frequency lies between the gyrofrequency of the two species. The work has opened up other possibilities of electrostatic wave excitations which can get driven by longitudinal and transverse ponderomotive force, diamagnetic drifts, relativistic effects etc., which require simulations in higher dimensions, finite temperatures, studies with sharper pulse profiles, relativistic power etc. This is the main thrust of the present proposal. Furthermore, preliminary 1-D simulations have also shown that at very strong magnetic fields where even the heavier ion species get magnetized the plasma becomes transparent to EM (electromagnetic) pulse. The role of higher dimensions, relativistic power etc., to understand the effect of strong magnetic fields which can make even the heavier ion response as magnetized, would be pursued in the light of this interesting observation. |