Langmuir decay instability cascade in laser-plasma experiments.

Thomson scattering has been used to investigate the nonlinear evolution of electron plasma waves (EPWs) generated by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). Two complementary diagnostics demonstrate the occurrence of the cascade of Langmuir decay instabilities (LDI). The EPW wave-number spectrum displays an asymmetric broadening towards small wave numbers, interpreted as a signature of the secondary EPWs produced in the LDI cascade. The number of cascade steps is in agreement with the broadening of the associated ion-acoustic-waves' spectra. The total energy transferred in the EPWs cascade is found to be either less than or of the same order of magnitude as the energy of the primary EPW.