Regular Articles

Full Text / References

Distortion of Bulk-Electron Distribution Function and Its Effect on Core Heating in Fast Ignition Plasmas

Hideaki MATSUURA, Yasuyuki NAKAO and Tomoyuki JOHZAKI¹⁾

Department of Applied Quantum Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Kyushu University, Motooka 744, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan

1)

Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan

(Received 6 December 2009 / Accepted 15 June 2010 / Published 10 December 2010)

Abstract

A possibility of distortion in bulk-electron velocity distribution function due to injection of intense laser-induced (LI) fast electrons is examined. The Fokker-Planck (FP) equations for LI-fast and bulk electrons are simultaneously solved consistently considering the time evolution of Rosenbluth potentials in two-dimensional (2D) velocity space. The FP simulation shows that an asymmetric distortion of bulk-electron distribution function becomes appreciable when number density of the fast electrons relative to bulk plasma is increased, and that when bulk electrons are assumed to be Maxwellian, the propagation distance of LI-fast electron tends to be shorter due to overestimated power deposition compared with the case when distortion process of the bulk electron distribution is considered.

Copyright (c) 2010 The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research

Keywords

distortion of bulk-electron velocity distribution function, laser-induced fast electron, Fokker-Planck equation, fast ignition plasma

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.5.S2070

Full Text

PDF format (1.0Mbytes)

References

• [1] See, for example, Y. Sentoku et al., Phys. Plasmas 11, 3083 (2004); T. Yokota et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 022702 (2006).
• [2] H. Matsuura et al., Phys. Plasmas 14, 054504 (2007).
• [3] A. J. Kemp et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 235001 (2006).

This paper may be cited as follows:

Hideaki MATSUURA, Yasuyuki NAKAO and Tomoyuki JOHZAKI, Plasma Fusion Res. 5, S2070 (2010).