Laying a foundation for laser-plasma modeling for the national ignition facility

Three multi-dimensional plasma simulation models for simulating parametric instabilities occurring in laser-produced plasmas are presented. These mode ls are based on a common framework, henceforth referred to as reduced-descr iption, in which the electromagnetic field is represented by three separate temporal envelopes in order to model parametric instabilities with high-fr equency and low-frequency daughter waves. Because the temporal envelope rep resentation is used, the explicit dependence on the laser time scale is rem oved from the simulations models. The time step of the simulation is then r estricted by either the electron timescale or the ion timescale, depending on whether parametric instabilities that result in high-frequency daughter waves are important. These simulation models are the basic building blocks of a comprehensive, ongoing model development program at Los Alamos Nationa l Laboratory, and have been implemented in multi-dimension on the Accelerat ed Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) parallel computer. Test simulation s of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), stimulated Brillouin scattering (SB S), the Langmuir decay instability (LDI), and the interaction thereof, are presented. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. Ali rights reserved.