Fully kinetic Fokker-Planck model of thermal smoothing in nonuniform laser-target interactions.
Using a fully kinetic 2D Fokker-Planck model, the generation and evolution of ion density perturbations from nonuniform laser deposition in a plasma slab have been studied. It is found that significant smoothing of the ion density perturbations from nonuniform optically smoothed single beam laser deposition can be achieved on hydrodynamic times scales over a range of scale sizes. In addition, it is observed that the Fokker-Planck model predicts more smoothing than the hydrodynamic Spitzer model.
Keskinen
M J
MJ
Charged Particle Physics Branch, Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA.