Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
An investigation is made of the effect of an external growth-rate modulation on the saturation of a linearly unstable plasma wave by means of nonlinear Landau damping. Different ways of exciting the saturated system by suitable choices of modulation frequency are discussed and the characteristics of the resulting instabilities, like thresholds, growth-rates, maximum amplitudes and final saturation levels are determined.