Simulations of Electron Transport in Laser Hot Spots

Technical Report · Thu Aug 30 04:00:00 EDT 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/787905· OSTI ID:787905

Brunner, S ^[1]; Valeo, E

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1. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Simulations of electron transport are carried out by solving the Fokker-Planck equation in the diffusive approximation. The system of a single laser hot spot, with open boundary conditions, is systematically studied by performing a scan over a wide range of the two relevant parameters: (1) Ratio of the stopping length over the width of the hot spot. (2) Relative importance of the heating through inverse Bremsstrahlung compared to the thermalization through self-collisions. As for uniform illumination [J.P. Matte et al., Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 30 (1988) 1665], the bulk of the velocity distribution functions (VDFs) present a super-Gaussian dependence. However, as a result of spatial transport, the tails are observed to be well represented by a Maxwellian. A similar dependence of the distributions is also found for multiple hot spot systems. For its relevance with respect to stimulated Raman scattering, the linear Landau damping of the electron plasma wave is estimated for such VD Fs. Finally, the nonlinear Fokker-Planck simulations of the single laser hot spot system are also compared to the results obtained with the linear non-local hydrodynamic approach [A.V. Brantov et al., Phys. Plasmas 5 (1998) 2742], thus providing a quantitative limit to the latter method: The hydrodynamic approach presents more than 10% inaccuracy in the presence of temperature variations of the order delta T/T greater than or equal to 1%, and similar levels of deformation of the Gaussian shape of the Maxwellian background.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab., NJ (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 787905
• Report Number(s): PPPL-3599
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
ELECTRON PLASMA WAVES
ELECTRON TRANSFER
FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION
HOT SPOTS
LANDAU DAMPING
LASERS