Hot electron scaling from PIC simulations of two-plasmon decay instability*

A series of 2D in-plane Particle-In-Cell simulations has been carried out to study the scaling of hot-electron fraction from two-plasmon decay (TPD) instability at conditions relevant to OMEGA-scale experiments. Scaling laws obtained give good prediction of the simulations. Using this scaling and laser-plasma conditions from LILAC simulations, we calculate whole-pulse hot-electron fractions and convert them into hard x-ray signals for validation and prediction. Results show that the simulation scaling ’predicts’ a much higher hot-electron fraction than the experiments. Plans to address missing physics in these simulations, including laser speckles, laser pump depletion under 0.21n_c, and cogeneration from TPD and Stimulated Raman Side Scattering, will also be discussed.