Kinetic Theory of Electron-Plasma and Ion-Acoustic Waves in Nonuniformly Heated Laser Plasmas

Using Fokker-Planck simulations, we have studied the evolution of different charge state plasmas heated by lasers having transverse spatial modulations (speckle patterns) and hot spots. The kinetic response of the plasma is computed using the resulting strongly non-Maxwellian electron velocity distribution functions. Significant reductions in the electron plasma wave Landau damping rates and large modulations in the local ion acoustic frequencies are found which impact the behavior of all parametric instabilities in such plasmas. Various experimental consequences are given.