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Laser interaction with a sharp-edged overdense plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

Guy Bonnaud
Affiliation:
Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Centre d'Etudes de Limeil-Valenton, 94195 Villeneuve St. Georges Cedex, France
Paul Gibbon
Affiliation:
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom
Joe Kindel
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545
Edward Williams
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550

Abstract

Recent studies on short-pulse interaction with steep-density gradient plasmas (L/λ0) uncovered some new absorption mechanisms. One such process was proposed by Brunei (1987), in which a laser beam is obliquely incident on a perfectly conducting surface. During one half-cycle, electrons dragged from the surface into the vacuum region are returned to the plasma with velocities of the same order as that of the quiver electron velocity. We have reexamined this mechanism using a 1–D (Lagrangian) plasma model, but without Brunel's assumption that the electric field vanishes inside the plasma. Analytical and numerical calculations of electron trajectories and the self-consistent electric fields are presented and comparisons are made with 1–D particle-in-cell simulations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

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