Hybrid particle-in-cell simulations of laser-driven plasma interpenetration, heating, and entrainment

Kinetic-ion, quasineutral, fluid-electron particle-in-cell simulations of interpenetrating carbon–carbon plasma flows in 2D RZ cylindrical geometry are presented. The simulations are initialized with solid density targets that are subsequently irradiated by 1014 W/cm2 intensity lasers using a raytracing package. The ablation, interpenetration, heating, slowing, entrainment, and stagnation of the plasma flows evolve self-consistently within the code. The particle density, velocity phase space, and fits to the velocity distribution functions are used, along with analytical collisional stopping rates, to interpret the dynamics of the flow evolution. Comparisons to multifluid simulations are described and used to highlight ion-kinetic effects in the setup. Synthetic Thomson scattering diagnostic signals are generated using detailed knowledge of the plasma distribution functions. The large scale of the system, 1 × 1 mm for 2 ns, and the detailed dynamics extracted demonstrate that such hybrid codes are powerful tools for the design and evaluation of laboratory-scale high-energy-density plasma physics experiments.Kinetic-ion, quasineutral, fluid-electron particle-in-cell simulations of interpenetrating carbon–carbon plasma flows in 2D RZ cylindrical geometry are presented. The simulations are initialized with solid density targets that are subsequently irradiated by 1014 W/cm2 intensity lasers using a raytracing package. The ablation, interpenetration, heating, slowing, entrainment, and stagnation of the plasma flows evolve self-consistently within the code. The particle density, velocity phase space, and fits to the velocity distribution functions are used, along with analytical collisional stopping rates, to interpret the dynamics of the flow evolution. Comparisons to multifluid simulations are described and used to highlight ion-kinetic effects in the setup. Synthetic Thomson scattering diagnostic signals are generated using detailed knowledge of the plasma distribution functions. The large scale of the system, 1 × 1 mm for 2 ns, and the detailed dynamics extracted demonstrate that such hybrid codes are powerfu...