Plasma effects in high frequency radiative transfer

Abstract

This paper is intended as a survey of collective plasma processes which can affect the transfer of high frequency radiation in a hot dense plasma. We are rapidly approaching an era when this subject will become important in the laboratory. For pedagogical reasons we have chosen to examine plasma processes by relating them to a particular reference plasma which will consist of fully ionized carbon at a temperature kT=1 KeV (10/sup 70/K) and an electron density N = 3 x 10/sup 23/cm/sup -3/, (which corresponds to a mass density rho = 1 gm/cm/sup 3/ and an ion density N/sub i/ = 5 x 10/sup 22/ cm/sup -3/). We will consider the transport in such a plasma of photons ranging from 1 eV to 1 KeV in energy. Such photons will probably be frequently used as diagnostic probes of hot dense laboratory plasmas.