Macroscopic Description of Radiation Pressure Forces in Laser-Produced Plasmas,
Abstract
Radiation pressure forces play an important role both in macroscopic and microscopic processes in laser-produced plasmas. A complete description of the macroscopic processes includes radiation driven electric fields as well as radiation driven forces on the neutral plasma. It is shown that a simple expression for the force which has been applied to certain microscopic processes (e.g., parametric instabilities) ignores field momentum and does not give a general description of macroscopic processes. A theory is discussed which does give a general macroscopic description (absorption, reflection, refraction and magnetic field generation) and which reduces to the above expression, as expected, for sinusoidal fields in a neutral, homogeneous, non-absorbing plasma. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1974
- Accession Number
- AD0777986
Entities
People
- John A. Stamper
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory