An extended Vlasov–Fokker–Planck approach for kinetic simulations of laser plasmas

Shaffer, N. R.; Sherlock, M.; Maximov, A. V.; Goncharov, V. N.

doi:10.1063/5.0143248

An extended Vlasov–Fokker–Planck approach for kinetic simulations of laser plasmas

Journal Article · Fri Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0143248· OSTI ID:1984664

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University of Rochester, NY (United States); Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
University of Rochester, NY (United States)

Vlasov–Fokker–Planck simulation codes occupy an important niche in modeling laser-produced plasmas, since they are well suited to studying the effect of collisions on electron kinetic phenomena, especially energy transport. One of the most important elements of energy transport is the absorption of laser light by the plasma; however, simulating this in detail requires resolving oscillations of the laser light, whose characteristic timescale is orders of magnitude shorter than the simulation time needed to study transport physics. For this reason, most Vlasov–Fokker–Planck codes used to study electron transport in laser plasmas rely on simplified models of the laser–plasma coupling. Their underlying assumptions nominally preclude their use for modeling laser light having short-scale structure in space or time, such as broadband lasers. In this work, we derive a more general computational framework suitable for arbitrarily structured laser fields. Furthermore, our approach is based on an extended set of Vlasov–Fokker–Planck equations that separately solve for the low- and high-frequency plasma response. We implement these extended Vlasov–Fokker–Planck equations in the spherical harmonic code K2 and demonstrate the performance of the method on several laser absorption test problems, with particular attention to the judicious selection of time steps, time integrators, and spherical harmonic truncation, according to the intensity and spectrum of the laser light under consideration. Comparison with the widely used Langdon absorption operator shows the Langdon operator performs remarkably well for predicting laser heating in the simple cases considered here, even in situations that would seem to violate its underlying assumptions.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); University of Rochester, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344; NA0003856

OSTI ID:: 1984664

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2202920

Report Number(s):: LLNL--JRNL-844002

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 30; ISSN 1070-664X

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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