Cross-modulation of whistler waves in a magnetized plasma

The phenomenon of the cross-modulation of whistler waves in a weakly collisional magnetized plasma has been revealed in laboratory experiments on the Krot large-scale plasma device. The amplitude-phase modulation of low-intensity probe waves passing through the plasma region modified by a pump wave with the deep harmonic modulation of the envelope has been observed. At large pump modulation periods, the spectrum of probe waves is enriched owing mainly to perturbations of the density of the plasma. At small periods, the modulation of probe waves has been assumingly attributed to the mechanism of “magnetic” nonlinearity, i.e., to perturbations of an ambient magnetic field.