Pump depletion and hot electron generation in long density scale length plasma with shock ignition high intensity laser

Abstract: Two-dimension Particle-in-cell simulations for laser plasma interaction with laser intensity of $10^{16} W/cm^2$, plasma density range of 0.01-0.28$n_c$ and scale length of $230 -330 \mu m$ showed significant pump depletion of the laser energy due to stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in the low density region ($n_e=0.01-0.2 n_c$). The simulations identified hot electrons generated by SRS in the low density region with moderate energy and by two-plasmon-decay (TPD) near $n_e=0.25n_c$ with higher energy. The overall hot electron temperature (46 keV) and conversion efficiency (3%) were consistent with the experiment measurements. The simulations also showed artificially reducing SBS would lead to stronger SRS and a softer hot electron spectrum.