Nonlinear inverse bremsstrahlung absorption in magnetized laser-fusion plasma

Abstract

The nonlinear inverse bremsstrahlung absorption (NLIBA) in magnetized plasma has been investigated within the framework of relativistic kinetic theory. Collisions are described by an improved Krook collision term that accounts for relativistic effects and the Landau microscopic collision form. The non-linearity considered in this paper arises from the anisotropy in electron momentum space in the plasma that is heated by an intense laser pulse. The absorption is explicitly expressed, under reasonable approximations, as a function of the plasma, laser pulse, and magnetic field parameters. Numerical treatment of the model equations shows that absorption increases with laser intensity but decreases with plasma temperature and laser wavelength. It has been shown that the polarization of the laser wave has a significant influence on absorption for high-intense magnetic fields used in magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) experiments. Nonlinear effects clearly reduce absorption for laser intensities comparable to the characteristic intensity, I0=me2c3ε0ωL2/e2, where me is the electron mass, c is the speed of light in vacuum, ɛ0 is the electric permittivity of free space, ωL is the laser wave frequency, and e is the elementary electric charge. Within the intensity I ≪ I0 and laser wavelength in the micro-meter range (λ ∼ μm), relativistic effects appear in the third order of absorption. These findings allow for the optimization of laser pulse parameters to achieve efficient absorption in MIF experiments.