Correlated ion stopping in a dense classical plasma

Abstract

The correlated ion stopping within N-clusters of ion debris, resulting from a swift fragmentation of a weakly ionized cluster impacting a dense and fully ionized classical plasma, is considered in the high velocity limit. Elaborating upon dicluster polarized stopping with a Fried-Conte plasma dielectric function, N-cluster stopping is taken as a linear superposition of every available dicluster pair. The main focus is on the enhanced correlation stopping and its dependence on N, N-cluster arrangement, as well as target plasma coupling. The main trends are qualitatively reminiscent of N-cluster stopping in a fully degenerate electron fluid. The basic length is the target electron screening length (Debye).