Frequency upshifting of electromagnetic radiation via oblique incidence on an ionization front

Frequency upshifting of electromagnetic radiation impinging on a relativistically moving ionization front is theoretically investigated. Unlike previous works in this field treating the case of normal incidence and qualitatively similar case of oblique incidence of a transverse electric polarized wave, oblique incidence of a transverse magnetic polarized wave on the front is considered. The peculiarities of the case under consideration are connected with the generation of Langmuir waves behind the front and Brewster's phenomenon. We present a complete analysis of the incident wave transformation including analysis of the frequencies and amplitudes of the waves excited ahead of and behind the front. Special emphasis is made on energy transformation in the case when a wave packet is incident on the front. In particular, we show that even for negligible angles of incidence, energy losses via transformation into Langmuir waves may be very high (up to /spl sim/60%). In general, generation of Langmuir waves may play a significant role in the plasma-based radiation sources with relativistic ionization fronts.