Enhanced collisionless laser absorption in strongly magnetized plasmas

Manzo, Lili; Edwards, Matthew R.; Shi, Yuan

doi:10.1063/5.0100727

Enhanced collisionless laser absorption in strongly magnetized plasmas

Journal Article · Fri Nov 04 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0100727· OSTI ID:1897356

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Stanford University, CA (United States)

We report that strongly magnetizing a plasma adds a range of waves that do not exist in unmagnetized plasmas and enlarges the laser-plasma interaction (LPI) landscape. In this paper, we use particle-in-cell simulations to investigate strongly magnetized LPI in one dimension under conditions relevant for magneto-inertial fusion experiments, focusing on a regime where the electron-cyclotron frequency is greater than the plasma frequency and the magnetic field is at an oblique angle with respect to the wave vectors. We show that when electron-cyclotron-like hybrid wave frequency is about half the laser frequency, the laser light resonantly decays to magnetized plasma waves via primary and secondary instabilities with large growth rates. These distinct magnetic-field-controlled instabilities, which we collectively call two-magnon decays, are analogous to two-plasmon decays in unmagnetized plasmas. Since additional phase mixing mechanisms are introduced by the oblique magnetic field, collisionless damping of large-amplitude magnetized waves substantially broadens the electron distribution function, especially along the direction of the magnetic field. During this process, energy is transferred efficiently from the laser to plasma waves and then to electrons, leading to a large overall absorptivity when strong resonances are present. The enhanced laser energy absorption may explain hotter-than-expected temperatures observed in magnetized laser implosion experiments and may also be exploited to develop more efficient laser-driven x-ray sources.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344

OSTI ID:: 1897356

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1897247

Report Number(s):: LLNL-JRNL-834357; 1052712

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 29; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Supplemental material for "Enhanced collisionless laser absorption in strongly magnetized plasmas" Manzo, Lili; Edwards, Matthew R.; Shi, Yuan Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6839968	dataset	January 2022

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