Modeling of Relativistic Coulomb Collisions in Partially Ionized Plasmas

Thumbnail Image

Authors

Lawrence, Mark

Issue Date

2010

Type

Thesis

Language

en_US

Keywords

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Journal Issue

Alternative Title

Abstract

Recent advances in the development of intense short pulse lasers have led to exciting progress in high energy density physics (HEDP). As an example, a several microns thin foil that is irradiated by a 100 TW, sub-picosecond laser pulse reaches keV (1 keV ~ 11,000,000 °C) temperatures locally at solid density, while the electron distribution is temporarily far out of equilibrium, featuring two or more widely distinct temperatures. In such a target atoms are almost fully ionized in the interaction region, while they are partially ionized deeply inside the target, especially in a high Z target. The energy transport and heating by hot electrons, of which energy is in a range of keV to 100 MeV (relativistic regime), is highly counted on the accuracy of the model of Coulomb collision among these hot electrons and partially ionized atoms. In this thesis, I first describe the effect of bounded electrons of partially ionized atom on the relativistic Coulomb collision, and propose a new model in order to integrate the cross section and calculate the energy and momentum transport in the collision. The model had been tested in the calculation of stopping power in various metal targets. The results are verified in comparison to the NIST stopping power data.

Description

Citation

Publisher

License

In Copyright(All Rights Reserved)

Journal

Volume

Issue

PubMed ID

DOI

ISSN

EISSN