The first training week “Plasma Physics – Theory and Experiments” Intensive program on the basics of plasma physics took place at the University of Bordeaux in Bordeaux (FR) between January 22-26 of 2018.
Teaching team: Emmanuel Abraham, Dimitri Batani, Emmanuel d’Humières, João Jorge Santos, Vladimir Tikhonchuk, Michael Ehret, Quentin Moreno, Jocelain Trela.
Number of Participating Students per Organization
| Technological Educational Institute of Crete | 3 |
| Panepistimio Ioanninon | 3 |
| University of York | 3 |
| The Queen’s University of Belfast | 3 |
| Universite de Bordeaux | 3 |
| Ecole Polytechnique | 3 |
| Universidad de Salamanca | 3 |
| Ceske Vysoke Uceni Technicke V Praze | 3 |
Training Program (Timetable)
Chapter 0: Introduction to laser safety (E. Abraham)
Chapter 1: Introduction and classification of plasmas (E. d’Humières)
- Main plasma parameters (Debye length, ion/electron plasma frequency, ion/electron Larmor radius, ion/electron cyclotron frequency, ion/electron mean free path, collision frequency, Landau length…)
- Classification of plasmas (Temperature/density diagram, classical/strongly coupled/degenerate/relativistic plasmas)
- Examples of plasmas (natural plasmas, hot plasmas, cold and industrial plasmas)
Chapter 2: Movement of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields (J.J. Santos)
- Drifts in a uniform magnetic field, crossed electric and magnetic fields
- Magnetic field gradient drift and magnetic mirroring (conservation of the magnetic moment)
- High frequency electric field, ponderomotive force
Chapter 3: Hydrodynamic (bi-fluid) description of a plasma (J.J. Santos)
- Equations for the mono- and bi-fluid model (continuity+Euler+EOS+Maxwell)
- Dispersion of electromagnetic waves and the critical density
- Dispersion of electron-plasma waves and of ion-acoustic waves
- Shock waves and relations Rankine-Hugoniot, blast waves, solution by Sedov-Taylor
+ Applications in high energy-density plasmas
Chapter 4: Kinetic description of waves and instabilities in plasmas (E. d’Humières)
- Velocity distribution function and mean quantities
- Landau damping of electron plasma waves
- Beam-plasma instabilities
- Parametric instabilities
+ laser-plasma interaction in Shock ignition
Chapter 5: Radiative properties of plasmas (D. Batani)
- Radiation emission from plasmas (bound-bound, recombination, bremsstrahulng, with some remarks on H-like and He-like spectra)
- Line broadening mechanisms
- Equilibrium in a plasma (Maxwell, Boltzmann, Saha)
- Photon absorption and opacity (in particular collisional absorption)
- Equation of radiative transfer and blackbody limit
+ Hohlraum energetics
Final examination
Practical courses: four groups of 5-6 students: 4h experiment + 2x3h numerical training
- Laboratory session: “Laser discharge at the surface of a solid target and propagation of a deflagration wave in air”, J.J. Santos, M. Ehret
- Numerical session: “Two stream instability and plasma expansion in vacuum exercises with the SMILEI code”, E. d’Humières, Q. Moreno
- Numerical session: “Plasma radiation calculations with FLYCHECK”, D. Batani, J. Trela