Comparison of geometric and wave optics in an absorbing spherical plasma

L. Friedland*, I. B. Bernstein

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The absorption of laser radiation by a spherical plasma is considered via geometric optics. In addition to the rays, the amplitude of the electric field is found, and absorption by inverse bremsstrahlung is modeled. The authors find resonance absorption in a domain outside the region where geometric optics is valid, assuming there a locally one-dimensional plasma-density variation and matching the geometric-optics solution with the solution of the wave equation. The total absorption coefficient obtained from the ray-tracing method is compared with the numerical results based on an exact solution of Maxwell's equation, and excellent agreement is found.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)666-671
Number of pages6
JournalPhysical Review A
Volume21
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1980
Externally publishedYes

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