Effects of Ion-Ion Collisions and Inhomogeneity in Two-Dimensional Kinetic Ion Simulations of Stimulated Brillouin Backscattering

Journal Article · Mon Oct 17 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physics of Plasmas

OSTI ID:885399

Cohen, B I; Divol, L; Langdon, A B; Williams, E A

Two-dimensional simulations with the BZOHAR [B.I. Cohen, B.F. Lasinski, A.B. Langdon, and E.A. Williams, Phys. Plasmas 4, 956 (1997)] hybrid code (kinetic particle ions and Boltzmann fluid electrons) have been used to investigate the saturation of stimulated Brillouin backscatter (SBBS) instability including the effects of ion-ion collisions and inhomogeneity. Ion-ion collisions tend to increase ion-wave dissipation, which decreases the gain exponent for stimulated Brillouin backscattering; and the peak Brillouin backscatter reflectivities tend to decrease with increasing collisionality in the simulations. Two types of Langevin-operator, ion-ion collision models were implemented in the simulations. In both models used the collisions are functions of the local ion temperature and density, but the collisions have no velocity dependence in the first model. In the second model, the collisions are also functions of the energy of the ion that is being scattered so as to represent a Fokker-Planck collision operator. Collisions decorrelate the ions from the acoustic waves in SBS, which disrupts ion trapping in the acoustic wave. Nevertheless, ion trapping leading to a hot ion tail and two-dimensional physics that allows the SBS ion waves to nonlinearly scatter remain robust saturation mechanisms for SBBS in a high-gain limit over a range of ion collisionality. SBS backscatter in the presence of a spatially nonuniform plasma flow is also investigated. Simulations show that depending on the sign of the spatial gradient of the flow relative to the backscatter, ion trapping effects that produce a nonlinear frequency shift can enhance (auto-resonance) or decrease (anti-auto-resonance) reflectivities in agreement with theoretical arguments.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 885399
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JRNL-216292
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 13; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ACOUSTICS
BACKSCATTERING
ELECTRONS
INSTABILITY
ION TEMPERATURE
ION WAVES
ION-ION COLLISIONS
KINETICS
PHYSICS
PLASMA
SATURATION
TRAPPING
VELOCITY