Fokker Planck and Krook theory of energetic electron transport in a laser produced plasma

Abstract

Various laser plasma instabilities, such as the two plasma decay instability and the stimulated Raman scatter instability, produce large quantities of energetic electrons. How these electrons are transported and heat the plasma are crucial questions for laser fusion. This paper works out a Fokker Planck and Krook theory for such transport and heating. The result is a set of equations, for which one can find a simple asymptotic approximation for the solution, for the Fokker Planck case, and an exact solution for the Krook case. These solutions are evaluated and compared with one another. They give rise to expressions for the spatially dependent heating of the background plasma, as a function of the instantaneous laser and plasma parameters, in either planar or spherical geometry. These formulas are simple, universal (depending weakly only on the single parameter Z, the charge state), and can be easily be incorporated into a fluid simulation.