Characteristics of large amplitude compressive ion acoustic solitary wave in ion beam multicomponent plasma

Large amplitude ion acoustic compressive solitary waves are excited in a multicomponent plasma in the presence of a positive ion beam. The threshold amplitude, when steepening of the leading edge of the compressive pulse occurs, depends on the ion beam velocity. The Mach velocity and the amplitude of large amplitude compressive solitary waves are measured for different ion beam velocities. The amplification of the large amplitude compressive solitary wave is observed when the ratio of the ion beam velocity divided by the ion acoustic velocity is in the range of 0.8–1.4. The maximum amplitude of the density perturbation observed in the experiment is quite large (∼170%).