Distortion of bulk-electron distribution function and its effect on core heating in fast ignition plasmas

Abstract

A possibility of distortion in bulk-electron velocity distribution function due to injection of intense laser-induced (LI) electrons is examined. The Fokker-Planck (FP) equations for LI-fast and bulk electrons are simultaneously solved consistently considering the time evolution of Rosenbluth potentials in two-dimensional (2D) velocity space. The FP simulation shows that an asymmetric distortion of bulk-electron distribution function becomes appreciable when intensity of the fast electron relative to bulk plasma density is increased, and that in this case the bulk-ion heating tends to be enhanced (accelerated) to some extent.