Lasers resonance absorption in

plasmas with parabolic density

profiles

S.J. Pestehe & M. Mohammadnejad

 Outline

 Introduction
 assumptions
 Theory
 Results
 Summary
 Future work
 Lasers Plasma
Interactions
Illuminate a plasma with a coherent light and study

Applications such as

Plasma Plasma Coherent & Incoherent Nuclear

Heating Spectroscopy E.M. wave generating fusion
 Nuclear fusion and
Coherent light generation

High intensity Coherent light

for evaporation and ignition processes
Nuclear
fusion
High frequency intense coherent light
for plasma spectroscopy

Holography, Microscopy
Coherent & of biological specimens,
Incoherent Deflectometry, interferometry,
E.M. wave X-ray Lasers
and radiography of dense
generating plasma (fusion research).
 Plasma Heating

 Ohmic Heating
 Neutral-Beam Injection
 High-frequency heating :
When electromagnetic waves of appropriate frequency are
beamed into the plasma, the plasma particles absorb energy from
the field of the wave and transfer it to the other particles through
collisions
Radio-frequency and microwave Heatings
Laser plasma interactions
 Laser absorptions
 Inverse Bremsstruhlung
Electrons oscillating in E.M. wave collide with ions and
translate the laser energy to plasma particles.
Vacuum heating
Dragging electrons out of the plasma into the vacuum
and sending them back into the plasma with the electric
field component along the density gradient
Resonance absorption
When a p polarized electromagnetic wave is obliquely
incident on an inhomogeneous high density plasma, it
will be absorbed resonantly. This process takes place by
mode conversion into an electron plasma wave.
 Resonance absorption
 A p polarized electromagnetic wave obliquely propagating through
inhomogeneous high density plasmas will find a singularity at a point
where the permittivity of the plasma vanishes and so will be absorbed
resonantly.
 This process takes place by resonantly driving large amplitude
plasma electron wave.
 Damping of this resonantly derived plasma wave occurs both by
collisional and non-collisional processes.
 Most of the analysis of this problem has concentrated on the linear
plasma density profile
 There are few researches that concern different plasma density
profiles including parabolic profile.
 But none of them, nearly, could give clear analytical formulas for the
electric and magnetic components of the electromagnetic field
propagating through an inhomogeneous plasma.
 Resonance absorption

 We have considered the resonant absorption of laser light

near the critical density of plasmas with parabolic electron
density profiles.
 Expressions for the electric and magnetic vectors of a laser
light propagating through the plasma have been obtained.
 An estimation of the absorbed fraction of the laser energy
has been obtained.
 It has been shown that, in contrast to the linear density
profile, the energy absorption depends explicitly on the
value of the collision frequency in this case.
 Assumptions
 Consider a plane parallel inhomogeneous plasma.
 Assume that the electron density gradient of the plasma is in the x
direction.
 A p-polarized E.M. wave of frequency ω0 having its wave vector
on (x-y) plane illuminates the vacuum-plasma interface at an angle
of θ0 with respect to the x axis.
 Consider three distinct regions:
a) Vacuum, where  1
b) From the vacuum-plasma interface to the critical surface
, where   x
c) beyond the critical density surface with a nearly constant high
density plasma where.
  cte
 0
ky  sin 0
c
Assumptions

 The origin of the Cartesian coordinate system will be placed at the

critical density point with its x coordinate directed toward the
vacuum-plasma interface.
 The electron density is taken to be dependent on x variable only

ne  ne  x 
  ky is constant and given by:
0
ky  sin 0
c
 kx will change so that the following dispersion relation is satisfied
0   p   kx  k y  c
2 2 2 2 2

 So that the wave will be reflected at kx  0

 The x and y dependence of the magnetic field are
separable i ( k0 sin 0 y 0t )
Bz ( x, y, t )  B( x)e

 Substituting B into the magnetic wave equation

one obtains

d 2 B( x) 1 d  dB( x)
  k0 (  sin 0 ) B( x)  0 .
2 2

dx 2
 dx dx
 Density profile

 For the three assumed regions we have

ne  0 for x  L    1

 x2 p 2 x 2
ne  nc (1  2 ) for 0< x < L    1  2  2
 L 0 L
c  
n  n N 2  1 for x  0    N 2
 e
 N is a positive number showing the difference between nc
and ne
 So, at the turning (reflection) point we have
m0 2
nc  , n  n cos 2
 ,   sin 2
0 , x  L sin 0
4 e 2 e c 0
 Wave equations &
their solutions
 For the free space the magnetic wave equation and its solution
will be d 2 B
2
 k 0
2
cos 2
0 B (x )  0  B1 (x )  B 0 sin(k 0 cos 0 x   ) .
dx
 In the second region the wave equation will be
d 2 B( x) 2 dB( x) k0 2 2 2 2
2
  2 ( x  L sin 0 ) B( x)  0 .
dx x dx L
 For short scale length plasmas (typical of intense and short laser
plasmas)  May neglect the third term compared with the
second term (specially at positions near the reflection point
d 2 B (x ) 2 dB (x )
2
  k 0
2
sin 2
 0 B (x )  0
dx x dx
 B 2 (x )  C 1e k 0 sin0x (k 0 sin 0 x  1)  C 2e  k 0 sin0 x (k 0 sin 0  1)
 Wave equations &
their solutions
 For the third over dense region of the plasma
d 2 B (x )
dx 2
 k 0
2
 sin 2
0  N 2
 B x   0
 k 0x
 B (x )  e where   sin 2 0  N 2

 The electric field can be related to the magnetic field

 B  ik 0 E
 Electric fields
 The electric fields in the three considered regions are

E 1 (x , y )  iB 0 [i sin 0 sin(k 0 cos 0 x   ) x

 cos 0 cos(k 0 cos 0 x   ) y ]e ik 0 sin0 y

iL2 
E 2 (x , y )  2 sin 0{i x [C 1  k 0 sin 0 x  1 e k 0 sin0x
x
C 2  k 0 sin 0 x  1 e  k 0 sin0x ]

 y ( C 1k 0 sin 0 xe k 0 sin0x  C 2 k 0 sin 0 xe  k 0 sin0x )}e ik 0sin0 y
i  
E 3 (x , y )   2 (i sin 0 x   y )e  k 0x ik 0 sin0 y
N
 The four φ, α , C1 , and C2 unknowns should be determined using
boundary conditions at the vacuum-plasma interface and resonant
point which we taken to be at x  NL
 Unknowns are detrmined
 Appling the boundary conditions and defining a new
parameter, q  k 0L sin 0 , one obtains
B0  cos 0 C2  C1
C1 

  k 0 L cos 0  sin 
1
 C 1  q  1 e q
 C 2  q  1 e q


 B 0 
  e  k NL C 1e  Nq (Nq  1)  C 2e Nq (Nq  1) 
0

  q 2 sin 2 0 (e q  e q )2  cos2 0[q 1e q   q  1e q ]2

[ (Nq  1)  Nq sin 0 ]e 2 Nq
 
 (Nq  1)  Nq sin 0
 Magnetic field versus x Teta=25, N=0.1, K0L=8
3000
Teta=25, N=0.1, K0L=4

2000

1000
B (a.u.)

0
-1 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15

-1000

-2000

-3000
kk0x
0x
Electric field versus x
Teta=25, N=0.1,k0L=8
1200 Teta=25, N=0.1,k0L=4

800

400
E (a.u)

0
-5 -3 -1 1 3 5 7 9 11 13

-400

-800

-1200
k0 x
 Field behaviors
 It can be seen that both components of the electric field
become infinite at the resonant layer which is the
property of the TM ordinary waves [R.B. White and F.F. Chen,
Amplification and absorption of electromagnetic waves in overdense plasmas,
Plasma physics, 16, 1973, p 565 ].
 However, the magnetic field remains finite at the
resonant layer so that the infinity in is associated
with its electrostatic component. E
 This means also that the transverse electromagnetic field
is almost changed to the longitudinal electric field
 Decreasing k0L results in different coupling phase at the
vacuum plasma interface, showing that the plasma length
decreases and the interaction point changes
 Laser Absorption
 Ex has a singularity at the critical point therefore,
following Kruer (W. L. Kruer, Addison-Wesley, New York,
1988) we define E as the field that driving resonance at
the critical point
E  Ex  x 

 This field can be interpreted as a component of the

electric field of the laser light which oscillates electrons
along the electron density gradient and is evaluated at
resonant point.
 The absorbed fraction of laser energy (absorption
coefficient), f a , is given by (D.E. Hinkel-Lipsker et. al., Phys.
Rev. Lett., 66, 14 (1991)). 
 El 2 ( x)
fa 
8 I 0    x

2
dx

 Assuming a small damping with a frequency of ν to the

wave, the dielectric function can be approximated as
p 2
 x   1
 i 
0 2 1  
 0 
 Assuming that the resonant region is narrowTake E
 1
out of the integral fa  El 
2
dx
8 I 0    x 
2
 After some algebra the integral is evaluated and the
absorption coefficient is obtained as f    k 0 L  E l ( x  0)
2

 2
a

2 B0
0
 Where El is evaluated at x  0 and is given by
El ( x  0)  sin 0 ( 1)C1
 The absorption depends on the inverse of the square root of
the collision rate (i.e.  ) which is a different behaviour
0

compared to the corresponding result obtained by linear

profile.
 Normalized absorption coefficient ( f  ) is plotted for some
0

typical values of k0 L , N, versus incident angle

 Absorption fraction versus
angle and k0x for ν = 0.03
90

80

70
0.0014
60
Angle (degree)

50

40 0.0056

0.0084
30
0.0098
20 0.0070 0.011 0.013

10 0.0028
0.0042
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
kL
3D Absorption fraction versus
angle and k0x for ν = 0.03
 Absorption fraction versus
angle and k0x for ν = 0.03
90

80

70

60
Angle (degree)

50 0.14 0.090

40 0.27 0.18
0.36
0.31
30
0.22 0.40
20

10 0.045

0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

kL
 Absorption fraction versus
angle and k0x, ν = 0.03, N=0.9
 Normalized absorption fraction
versus angle and k0L, N=0.2
90
0
fa 2
80 0

70
3.5E-4
60
Angle (degree)

50

40 0.0014

0.0021
30

20 0.0018 0.0028 0.0032

0.0024
10 7E-4
0.0010
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
kL
 3D Normalized absorption fraction
versus angle and k0L, N=0.2

0
fa 2
0
 Normalized absorption fraction
versus angle and k0L, N=0.9
90
0
fa 2
80 0
70

60
Angle (degree)

50 0.033 0.022

40 0.0660.044
0.088
30 0.077
0.055 0.099
20

10 0.011

0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

 3D Normalized absorption fraction
versus angle and k0L, N=0.9

0
fa 2
0
 Results

 The absorbed fraction of the laser energy increases with

increasing N.
 As k0L increases the optimum angle of incidence goes
down.
 The highest absorption coefficient occurs, for higher
densities in the overdone region (~2nc) at   30 and k L  1.0
0

and is nearly 40%

 The widths of the absorption coefficient along k0L and Ө,
respectively, are decreasing /increasing as N increases.
 Conclusions
 An introduction to laser plasma interaction is given.
 Magnetic wave equation for the interaction of P polarized
laser light with a plasma with parabolic density profile is
obtained and solved by a semi-analytical model.
 A relation for the electric field inside the plasma is
obtained.
 The behaviours of the magnetic and electric fields inside
the plasma are studied.
 Absorption coefficient for the incident laser light inside the
assumed plasma is obtained and simulated.
 Optimum incident angles and plasma scale lengths for
different overdense density-order, N, is obtained.