A transport simulation code for inertial confinement fusion relevant laser-plasma interaction

We present a code for the simulation of laser–plasma interaction processes relevant for applications in inertial confinement fusion. The code consists of a fully nonlinear hydrodynamics in two spatial dimensions using a Lagrangian, discontinuous Galerkin-type approach, a paraxial treatment of the laser field and a spectral treatment of the dominant non-local transport terms. The code is fully parallelized using MPI in order to be able to simulate macroscopic plasmas. One example of a fully nonlinear evolution of a laser beam in an underdense plasma is presented for the conditions previewed for the future MegaJoule laser project.  2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 02.70.Dh; 47.11.+j; 52.35.Tc; 52.38.-r; 52.65.Kj; 52.57.-z