Landau damping of a driven plasma wave from laser pulses

The interaction between a laser pulse and a driven plasma wave with a phase velocity approaching the speed of light is studied, and our investigation is focused on the Gaussian laser pulse. It is demonstrated that when the resonance condition between the plasma wave and the laser pulse is satisfied, the Landau damping phenomenon of the plasma wave originated from the laser pulse will emerge. The dispersion relations for the plasma waves in resonance and non-resonance regions are obtained. It is proved that the Landau damping rate for a driven plasma wave is γ > 0 in the resonance region, so the laser pulse can produce an inverse damping effect, namely Landau growth effect, which leads an instability for the plasma wave. The Landau growth means that the energy is transmitted from the laser pulse to the plasma wave, which could be an effective process for enhancing the plasma wave.