Nonlinear inverse bremsstrahlung and heated-electron distributions

When Zv02/v/sub e/ 2> or approx. =1, inverse bremsstrahlung results in a non-Maxwellian velocity distribution for which the absorption is reduced by up to a factor of 2 compared with the Maxwellian distribution usually assumed. Transport and atomic processes are also altered. Expecially in materials with Z >> 1, this is significant at lower intensities than for the well-known nonlinearity for which the measure is v02/v/sub e/ 2