Two-Stream Coupling of Corona and Core in Laser-Heated Pellets,

Abstract

When a pellet is heated by a CO2 laser, the tenuous plasma corona in which the light is absorbed quickly becomes collisionless. This poses a problem for CTR schemes which rely on the heated corona to compress the inner solid core of the pellet. As a replacement for collisional coupling between corona and core, the present report considers a turbulent coupling which develops from a two-stream instability between the heated corona electrons and the cold core electrons. Preliminary results indicate that the coupling is only marginally effective, unless the laser light is amplitude modulated so the heating occurs in short bursts. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1972
Accession Number
AD0757790

Entities

People

  • Marshall N. Rosenbluth
  • Thomas M. O'neil

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplitude
  • Carbon Dioxide Lasers
  • Couplings
  • Electrons
  • Instability
  • Lasers

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Solar Physics
  • Thermal Physics or Thermal Science.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics