ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter most of the basic plasma phenomena needed to understand ICF were introduced. In this chapter we will look at which of these processes take place in the various stages of inertial confinement fusion. Starting from the moment the laser hits the target and a plasma created, we will see that the subsequent absorption of laser light is rather complex and many different processes take place simultaneously. As far as possible simple models will be used to describe the most important processes of this phase. In general sophisticated computer simulations are necessary to understand absorption physics quantitatively. At the appropriate places we will refer to further reading of these detailed studies.
