ISSN:
1089-7674
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
For p-polarized laser light obliquely incident on overdense plasmas with steep density gradients, a new collisionless absorption mechanism (sheath-transit absorption) is studied analytically and numerically. Complementary to Brunel's "not-so-resonant'' resonant absorption, and to the conventional resonant absorption, the sheath-transit absorption is most effective for steep density gradients and when the light pressure is less than the plasma pressure. It is also shown that the assumption of instantaneous particle reflection, usually a reasonable assumption for the normal incidence case, is invalid for the p-polarized oblique incident case. A test-particle model which provides a simple physical picture of the sheath-transit absorption is presented. Absorption coefficients obtained from the test-particle model agree reasonably well with those from particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The transition from the resonant absorption to the sheath-transit absorption as the density gradient steepens is demonstrated by PIC simulations with a wide range of density gradients. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.871527
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