Lateral and Axial Magnetisation in the Inverse Faraday Effect for the Interaction of Waves in Plasma

Abstract

We evaluate the static lateral magnetisation from the inverse Faraday effect, due to a circularly polarised electromagnetic wave and either a high frequency longitudinal dispersive plasma wave (case 1) or an ion acoustic wave (case 2), all propagating in the same direction in an unmagnetised plasma. These two lateral magnetisations are found to be in opposite directions. For the interaction of 1·06 /lm circularly polarised electromagnetic radiation having a power flux 5x1016 Wm-2 and pulse width 5 ns in a plasma, in case 2 the induced transverse static magnetic field is about 0·0014 Wbm-2 ? In case I, this static field is about 0·0234 Wb m-2. In a quiescent cesium plasma the magnetisation is found to be insignificant in both cases. These theoretical investigations may help in the understanding of anomalous diffusion of plasmas in some problems, and in the explanation of solar prominences and other such astrophysical effects.