We analyze in detail, in the kinetic regime, the behavior of a model kinetic equation previously used by us for the description of the density fluctuation spectrum in molecular gases. We find that over a small range of wavelengths and frequencies the predicted spectrum contains an unphysical feature, namely a shallow dip in the Rayleigh line. This effect is traced to the modelled elastic collision operator and has gone unnoticed in similar models of monatomic gases. We propose a modified model which corrects this feature and which appears to reproduce the details seen in light-scattering experiments.

The efficiency of neutral beam heating and current drive depends crucially on the deposition of the energy and momentum of the beam in the plasma. This deposition is determined by the atomic processes involved in the stopping (or effective ionization) of the neutral beam atoms. These processes have been studied in detail for the energy range from 10 keV/u to 10 MeV/u. The processes considered include both the ground state and the excited state of the beam atoms, thus allowing for the multistep ionization of the beam in collisions with the plasma constituents and impurities. The effective beam stopping cross-section has been calculated for a wide variety of beam and plasma parameters. The atomic database necessary for these calculations has been documented using the best data available at present. The stopping cross-section data are also given in terms of a convenient analytic fit, which can be used either in computer calculations or for simpler analytic estimates of neutral beam penetration.

We have calculated the absorption of laser light by a powder of metal spheres, typical of the powder employed in laser powder-bed fusion additive manufacturing. Using ray-trace simulations, we show that the absorption is significantly larger than its value for normal incidence on a flat surface, due to multiple scattering. We investigate the dependence of absorption on powder content (material, size distribution, and geometry) and on beam size.

Within the framework of the Wang Chang–Uhlenbeck kinetic equation, we propose a model description of molecular gases. The model is related to the models earlier discussed by Hanson and Morse. In our formulation, the model requires no adjustable parameters to analyze the light scattering spectrum from a molecular gas. We apply the model theory to recent Brillouin scattering experiments on hydrogen, deuterium, and hydrogen deuteride and find excellent agreement.

We present results of numerical modeling and direct calorimetric measurements of the powder absorptivity for a number of metals. The modeling results generally correlate well with experiment. We show that the powder absorptivity is determined, to a great extent, by the absorptivity of a flat surface at normal incidence. Our results allow the prediction of the powder absorptivity from normal flat-surface absorptivity measurements.