Simulation of radiation expansion of laser plasma in an external magnetic field

Radiation expansion of laser plasma in an external magnetic field is investigated in the paper. A two-dimensional system of ideal magneto-hydrodynamics with radiation transfer in a cylindrical system of coordinates was solved numerically using second-order conservative TVD difference scheme by space and time. A multigroup flux-limited diffusion scheme was applied for the solution of the radiative transfer equation. At the initial moment, the heating of a target, consisting of vapors of aluminum was implemented by a short-action laser pulse with a duration time of 30 nanoseconds and Gaussian profile by space with a half-thickness of 0.03 centimeters. Cases that take into account, as well as those that do not take into account, the radiation transfer and the magnetic field effects are considered. The numerical simulations show that inclusion of radiation transfer changes the dynamics of laser expansion quantitatively and qualitatively. © 2010, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.