Non-uniform illumination of laser targets

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Abstract
Attempts to accelerate and implode laser targets are hindered by the non-uniformities present in real laser beams. The effects of non-uniform illumination are ‘smoothed’ by thermal transport in the low density ablation plasma but amplified by the fluid instabilities (Rayleigh–Taylor) present in the high density accelerated material. In this paper the effects of different assumptions concerning the plasma thermal conductivity are analysed and the inclusion of the full fluid equations is shown to introduce oscillatory (acoustic) and growing (Rayleigh–Taylor) phenomena into the fluid response.