Transport in laser-produced plasmas

Electron transport is usually the predominant transport process in most directly driven laser-plasma experiments, although radiation transport can dominate at high density or when high Z materials are irradiated. These lecture notes discuss the transport of energy by electrons in laser-produced plasmas. The emphasis in the first part is on the one dimensional problem of carrying energy from the sub-critical to the solid plasma, and we then proceed the two-dimensional smoothing of energy deposition on the target surface and the effect of transport on filamentation. The later parts of the notes will show that suprathermal electrons are important in some cases, and that large magnetic fields can affect the transport. Finally, we will discuss some interesting transport effects which have yet to be understood. (author)