Bremsstrahlung radiation power in non-Maxwellian plasmas

Abstract

In plasmas, bremsstrahlung includes electron-ion (e-i) bremsstrahlung and electron-electron (e-e) bremsstrahlung. Bremsstrahlung radiation power loss is one of the most significant losses in fusion plasmas, which is more pronounced in higher temperature fusion. The factors that affect bremsstrahlung power include the mean electron energy and the electron velocity distribution shape. In this study, we systematically study the influence of the electron velocity distribution shape on the bremsstrahlung power with fixed total electron energy. It was found that the existing electron velocity distribution shapes have little effect on the bremsstrahlung power. In addition, by analyzing the bounds of bremsstrahlung power, we have provided the theoretical upper and lower bounds of e-i radiation. Our analysis reveals that the e-i bremsstrahlung power depends critically on the degree of energy distribution concentration. Specifically, in non-relativistic regimes, concentrated energy distributions enhance the radiation power, whereas in high-temperature relativistic regimes, such concentration suppresses it. This discrepancy arises from the distinct contributions of high-energy electron populations to radiation power across different energy regimes. For e-e bremsstrahlung, a similar dependence on energy concentration is observed. Furthermore, e-e radiation power exhibits additional sensitivity to the anisotropy of the electron velocity distribution function. These rules could provide a basis for reducing bremsstrahlung power losses in fusion plasmas.