Effects of target electron collisions on energy loss straggling in plasmas of all degeneracies

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to describe the effects of target electron collisions on the energy loss straggling in plasmas of any degeneracy. We focus our analysis on targets that are in the limit of weakly coupled electron gases, where the random phase approximation can be applied. This type of plasmas targets has not been studied extensively, though they are very important for inertial confinement fusion. The energy loss straggling is obtained from an exact quantum mechanical evaluation, which takes into account the degeneracy of the target plasma, and later it is compared with common classical and degenerate approximations. Also we consider electron collisions in the exact quantum mechanical straggling calculation. Now the maximum straggling occurs at velocities smaller than for the calculations without considering collisions for all kinds of plasmas analyzed. The straggling remains equal or enhances for velocities less than or equal to the velocity at maximum while is slightly decreases for higher velocities. Differences are significant in all cases, that can let large errors creep on in further energy deposition and projectile range studies.