Calculation of the inverse bremsstrahlung absorption in unmagnetized plasmas

Abstract

Inverse bremsstrahlung is one important way to deliver laser energy to the plasma in inertial confinement fusion. In this article, we study the collisional absorption rate as obtained from the Fokker-Planck treatment of an unmagnetized plasma in harmonic laser field. The electron-ion collision rate is considered in the Krook approximation, and the electron distribution function is considered a Maxwellian function. We evaluate the inverse bremsstrahlung absorption near the irradiated plasma surface in the critical layer. We observe that absorption increases with shorter laser wavelength and lower electron temperatures. When the maximum electron velocity in the limit of q → 1 reaches infinity, the q-non-extensive distribution function reduces to the standard Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. K E Y W O R D Sabsorption, collision, inertial confinement fusion, inverse bremsstrahlung, laser plasma