Collisionless absorption of light waves incident on overdense plasmas with steep density gradients
Collisionless absorption of laser light incident on overdense plasmas with steep density gradients is studied analytically and numerically. For the normal incidence case, it is shown that both sheath inverse bremsstrahlung and the anomalous skin effect are limiting cases of the same collisionless absorption mechanism. Using particle-in-cell (PIC) plasma simulations, the effects of finite sheath-transit time and finite density gradient are investigated. The analyses are extended to oblique incident cases. For p-polarized obliquely incident light, the results are significantly different from those for the normal incidence case. Most noticeable is the absorption enhancement for the p-polarized light due to the interaction of the electrons with the normal (parallel to the density gradient) component of the laser electric field in the sheath region.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 110677
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-121624; CONF-9508164-2; ON: DE95017872; TRN: 95:022032
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Plasma physics and technology conference, La Jolla, CA (United States), 8-18 Aug 1995; Other Information: PBD: 31 Jul 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Absorption of laser light in overdense plasmas by sheath inverse bremsstrahlung
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