Transverse electron susceptibility and the electromagnetic wave absorption in weakly collisional plasmas

A theory of plasma response to electromagnetic perturbations has been developed based on the full solution to the Fokker - Planck equation in high Z plasmas without electron - electron collisions. For the first time the transverse electron susceptibility has been calculated for the entire range of frequencies and wave numbers including the quantitative description of the weakly collisional regime where the wave frequency is comparable to the electron - ion collision frequency and the wave number is comparable to the inverse electron mean free path. The results have been compared to approximate expressions for the electron conductivity based on the Drude model showing discrepancy by a factor of few in regions where the spatial dispersion is important. The theory is applied to the calculation of laser light absorption in solid density plasmas. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics