Plasma cavity formation caused by ion acoustic waves and nonlinear modulation of trapped waves

Abstract

Externally amplitude-modulated ion acoustic waves with high frequencies of 200–320 kHz are experimentally shown to form plasma cavities and to be trapped in them at an early stage. Thereafter, the trapped waves are observed to suffer nonlinear modulation and create new lower-frequency waves with average frequencies as low as 20–40 kHz within the cavities. As a result, the externally excited high-frequency ion acoustic waves are found to be nonlinearly converted into lower-frequency ion waves in the cavities. Finally, the pressure gradients of the waves effective in cavity formation and nonlinear modulation of the trapped waves are discussed.