Kinetic (particle-in-cell) simulation of nonlinear laser absorption in a finite-size plasma with a background inhomogeneous magnetic field

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of an external inhomogeneous magnetic field on the high intensity laser absorption rate in a sub-critical plasma has been investigated by employing a relativistic electromagnetic 1.5 dimensional particle-in-cell code. Relying on the effective nonlinear phenomena such as phase-mixing and scattering, this study shows that in a finite-size plasma the laser absorption increases with inhomogeneity of the magnetic field (i.e., reduction of characteristic length of inhomogeneous magnetic field, λp) before exiting a considerable amount of laser energy from the plasma due to scattering process. On the other hand, the presence of the external inhomogeneous magnetic field causes the maximum absorption of laser to occur at a shorter time. Moreover, study of the kinetic results associated with the distribution function of plasma particles shows that, in a special range of the plasma density and the characteristic length of inhomogeneous magnetic field, a considerable amount of laser energy is transferred to the particles producing a population of electrons with kinetic energy along the laser direction.