Backward Raman amplification in the Langmuir wavebreaking regime

In plasma-based backward Raman amplifiers, the output pulse intensity increases with the input pump pulse intensity, as long as the Langmuir wave mediating energy transfer from the pump to the seed pulse remains intact. However, at high pump intensity, the Langmuir wave breaks, at which point the amplification efficiency may no longer increase with the pump intensity. Numerical simulations presented here, employing a one-dimensional Vlasov-Maxwell code, show that, although the amplification efficiency remains high when the pump only mildly exceeds the wavebreaking threshold, the efficiency drops precipitously at larger pump intensities. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.