DOWNSHIFTED MAXIMUM FEATURES IN STIMULATED ELECTROMAGNETIC EMISSION-SPECTRA

New and detailed experimental and theoretical results concerning the prominent downshifted maximum (DM) feature in spectra of stimulated electromagnetic emissions are reported. The experimental results were obtained at the Sura ionospheric modification facility in Russia by transmitting a powerful high-frequency ordinary mode pump wave into the ionospheric F region. We present detailed experimental results of the dependence of the DM on the pump frequency. Different frequency components of the DM have slightly different growth times after pump turn-on and are suppressed in different pump frequency ranges at harmonics of the electron cyclotron frequency. The pump frequency range near the cyclotron harmonics in which the DM does not develop, decreases significantly with increasing harmonic, from several kilohertz at the fourth harmonic to an extremely narrow range of 0.2 kHz or less at the seventh harmonic. We discuss conditions for plasma wave propagation to explain this dependence on the cyclotron harmonics.