Coherent microwave radiation from a laser induced plasma

We propose a method for generation of coherent monochromatic microwave/terahertz radiation from a laser-induced plasma. It is shown that small-scale plasma, located in the interaction region of two co-propagating plane-polarized laser beams, can be a source of the dipole radiation at a frequency equal to the difference between the frequencies of the lasers. This radiation is coherent and appears as a result of the so-called optical mixing in plasma. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4773240]