Thomson scattering from Langmuir fluctuations in a parabolic layer of a collisional plasma

Thomson scattering of a probe wave by the Langmuir fluctuations inside a plasma layer with a parabolic density profile is considered. The collisional damping of plasma fluctuations is taken into account. The plasma line part of the scattered spectrum is calculated depending on the layer thickness, electron collision frequency, and the form of the distribution functions for the electrons and ions. Simple analytic expressions for the plasma line shape and characteristic spectrum width are found. It is shown that this plasma line is asymmetric, and the asymmetry depends on the layer type (maximum or minimum). Some important plasma parameters, such as the electron collision frequency and the sign of the electron density deviation inside the layer can be obtained from the plasma line spectrum calculated in this paper.