Convective parametric decay instability in a laser plasma

It is shown that during the buildup of a convective parametric decay instability a high-intensity internal field can be generated throughout the spatial region in which excitation and propagation of electron Langmuir waves is possible. Under the conditions of a laser plasma, this region accounts for an appreciable proportion (~30%) of the plasma corona. A turbulence region of this size has the result that when the effective collision frequency exceeds the classical value, anomalous heating of the laser plasma corona may be found. An explanation of various experimental data on second harmonic generation and reemission is given.