Thermal effects of hot electron halo in a laser-imploded Z-layered plasma pellet

Coupling of the core with the surrounding corona of hot electrons produced around the plasma critical surface in a spherically symmetric laser-imploded Z-layered plasma target has been analyzed. Considering that the energy equipartition exists between the cold electrons of the core and the hot coronal electrons in the core–corona overlapping region, the analytic expression for core–corona coupling has been derived. The efficiency of heat transfer from the hot corona to the cold core depends on the laser wavelength, mean electron temperature in the ablation region, and the width of the Z-layer in the plasma pellet. Numerical results indicate that short wavelength lasers are favorable for efficient heating of the core by the surrounding hot corona. The core-corona coupling increases primarily with the mean electron temperature up to a certain extent and beyond that further laser flux transfer to the hot corona results in decoupling of the core from the corona. The presence of Z-layer is likely to reduce the electron mean free path in the ablation region and affects the laser wavelength scaling of the core-corona coupling. It is also found to have positive influence on the maximum coupling efficiency of the core with the hot corona.