Transport Inhibition Implied by Density Profile Flattening in the Corona of Laser-Heated Microspheres

The density profile in the corona of 70-μm-diam glass spheres, irradiated by 50-GW pulses from a Nd-glass laser, was measured in the density range $2\times {10}^{19}<n_e<3\mathrm{}\times {10}^{20}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{-3\mathrm{}}$. The profile was found to be rather flat. In a computer simulation of the experiment we have to include strong inhibition of electron heat conductivity to explain the results.