LAUSR

The effects of non-Maxwellian electron velocity distribution functions on atomic kinetics and radiative emission properties of high-temperature low-density gold plasmas are numerically investigated. The electron velocity distributions are described as super-Gaussian distribution functions. These distributions are used in a collisional-radiative atomic kinetic model to compute the ion populations and to evaluate radiative emissivities. Calculations are done for electron temperatures and electron densities assumed to be representative of those encountered in megajoule class laser-heated gold hohlraums downstream the critical electron density. A systematic average ionization enhancement is highlighted: the higher the super-Gaussian exponent value, the higher is the deviation compared to the Maxwellian case. The greatest average ionization differences can exceed five charge states in the electron temperature domain considered. Depending on the electron temperature, the radiative power loss deviations can be either negative (up to −35%) or positive (up to 22%), compared to the Maxwellian cases.