Two-dimensional nonlocal electron transport in laser-produced plasmas.

A two-dimensional Fokker-Planck code Sp-smcapsAr-smcapsk-smcaps has been constructed to study the process of nonlocal thermal smoothing in planar laser-produced plasmas with no ion motion. The results from Sp-smcapsAr-smcapsk-smcaps are compared with those from a standard fluid code with flux-limited Spitzer-Harm conductivity. It is found that even when the one-dimensional transport is well modeled by fluid theory the thermal smoothing arising from nonuniform laser energy deposition may be severely overestimated for scale-length modulations shorter than about 80 electron mean free paths.