Modeling of Relativistic Coulomb Collisions in Partially Ionized Plasmas
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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.
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