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Theory of Thomson scattering in inhomogeneous media

Thomson scattering of laser light is one of the most fundamental diagnostics of plasma density, temperature and magnetic fields. It relies on the assumption that the properties in the probed volume are homogeneous and constant during the probing time. On the other hand, laboratory plasmas are seldom...

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Autores principales: Kozlowski, P. M., Crowley, B. J. B., Gericke, D. O., Regan, S. P., Gregori, G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4828674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27068215
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep24283
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author Kozlowski, P. M.
Crowley, B. J. B.
Gericke, D. O.
Regan, S. P.
Gregori, G.
author_facet Kozlowski, P. M.
Crowley, B. J. B.
Gericke, D. O.
Regan, S. P.
Gregori, G.
author_sort Kozlowski, P. M.
collection PubMed
description Thomson scattering of laser light is one of the most fundamental diagnostics of plasma density, temperature and magnetic fields. It relies on the assumption that the properties in the probed volume are homogeneous and constant during the probing time. On the other hand, laboratory plasmas are seldom uniform and homogeneous on the temporal and spatial dimensions over which data is collected. This is particularly true for laser-produced high-energy-density matter, which often exhibits steep gradients in temperature, density and pressure, on a scale determined by the laser focus. Here, we discuss the modification of the cross section for Thomson scattering in fully-ionized media exhibiting steep spatial inhomogeneities and/or fast temporal fluctuations. We show that the predicted Thomson scattering spectra are greatly altered compared to the uniform case, and may lead to violations of detailed balance. Therefore, careful interpretation of the spectra is necessary for spatially or temporally inhomogeneous systems.
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spelling pubmed-48286742016-04-19 Theory of Thomson scattering in inhomogeneous media Kozlowski, P. M. Crowley, B. J. B. Gericke, D. O. Regan, S. P. Gregori, G. Sci Rep Article Thomson scattering of laser light is one of the most fundamental diagnostics of plasma density, temperature and magnetic fields. It relies on the assumption that the properties in the probed volume are homogeneous and constant during the probing time. On the other hand, laboratory plasmas are seldom uniform and homogeneous on the temporal and spatial dimensions over which data is collected. This is particularly true for laser-produced high-energy-density matter, which often exhibits steep gradients in temperature, density and pressure, on a scale determined by the laser focus. Here, we discuss the modification of the cross section for Thomson scattering in fully-ionized media exhibiting steep spatial inhomogeneities and/or fast temporal fluctuations. We show that the predicted Thomson scattering spectra are greatly altered compared to the uniform case, and may lead to violations of detailed balance. Therefore, careful interpretation of the spectra is necessary for spatially or temporally inhomogeneous systems. Nature Publishing Group 2016-04-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4828674/ /pubmed/27068215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep24283 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Kozlowski, P. M.
Crowley, B. J. B.
Gericke, D. O.
Regan, S. P.
Gregori, G.
Theory of Thomson scattering in inhomogeneous media
title Theory of Thomson scattering in inhomogeneous media
title_full Theory of Thomson scattering in inhomogeneous media
title_fullStr Theory of Thomson scattering in inhomogeneous media
title_full_unstemmed Theory of Thomson scattering in inhomogeneous media
title_short Theory of Thomson scattering in inhomogeneous media
title_sort theory of thomson scattering in inhomogeneous media
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4828674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27068215
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep24283
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