Anomalous effects on hot-electron transport and ablation structure

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Abstract
Two features of the ablation structure in the presence of hot electrons are clarified by simulation and theoretical analysis. One feature is the possibility of steady deflagration wave being formed by collisional energy deposition of hot electrons in the high-density region of laser targets, the other one is the creation of a steep density profile near the critical point, associated with hot-electron trapping and coldelectron heating due to a high electric field enhanced by anomalous resistivity to the return current. It should be noted that, in this anomalous region, a significant fraction of hot-electron energy is transferred to thermal electrons above 5 × 1015Wcm−2. A theoretical analysis is given which qualitatively agrees well with the simulation results. Possible applications of the theory to recent experiments are proposed.