Transition to turbulence via spatiotemporal intermittency in stimulated Raman backscattering

Abstract

The spatiotemporal evolution of stimulated Raman backscattering in a bounded, uniform, weakly dissipative plasma is studied. The nonlinear model of a three-wave interaction involves a quadratic coupling of slowly varying complex amplitudes of the laser pump, the backscattered and the electron plasma wave. The corresponding set of coupled partial differential equations with nonlinear phase detuning that is taken into account is solved numerically in space time with fixed nonzero source boundary conditions. The study of the above open, convective, weakly confined system reveals a quasiperiodic transition to spatiotemporal chaos via spatiotemporal intermittency. In the analysis of transitions a dual scheme borrowed from fields of nonlinear dynamics and statistical physics is applied. An introduction of a nonlinear three-wave interaction to a growing family of paradigmatic equations which exhibit a route to turbulence via spatiotemporal intermittency is outlined in this work.