Fast electrons, X-rays, and fast ions in laser-produced plasmas

The motion of super-thermal electrons in laser-heated plasmas is evaluated, including collisionless orbiting in the under-dense plasma, collisional loss to the thermal electrons, energy loss in the time-dependent corona fields, and deflection by non-radial fields. The characteristics of the motion are determined by the initial spectrum and the angular momentum distribution which are adjusted to give X-ray spectra in agreement with experiment. In this model, initial electron energies are considerably greater than given by flux-limited calculations. (author)