Test of models for electron transport in laser produced plasmas

This paper examines five different models of electron thermal transport in laser produced spherical implosions. These are classical, classical with a flux limit f , delocalization, beam deposition model, and Fokker-Planck solutions. In small targets, the results are strongly dependent of f for flux limit models, with small f ’s generating very steep temperature gradients. Delocalization models are characterized by large preheat in the center of the target. The beam deposition model agrees reasonably well with the Fokker-Planck simulation results. For large, high gain fusion targets, the delocalization model shows the gain substantially reduced by the preheat. However flux limitation models show gain largely independent of f , with the beam deposition model also showing the same high gain. PACS numbers: 52.57.Fg,52.65.Kj,52.25.Fi ∗Electronic address: [email protected]