Target polarization effect on energy loss of O<sup>5+</sup> ions near Bohr velocity in low density hydrogen plasma

Abstract

Energy loss of ions near the Bohr velocity in plasma is one of the important topics in intense heavy ion beam driven high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion. Based on the ions-plasma interaction experimental platform at HIRFL, this work shows the new experimental energy loss results of 1.07 MeV (~66.9 keV/u) O<sup>5+</sup> ions penetrating through a low-density partially ionized hydrogen plasma target (radio frequency plasma). The decrease of energy loss with free electron density increasing is found, which is very different from our previous result. The new experimental results are discussed by considering the theoretical models which involves the charge screening of projectiles in the partially ionized plasma and the target polarization effect-Barkas correction term. For the charge screening , the comparison between the momentum transfer under the Coulomb potential and that under the Debye potential is given, but due to the low ionization degree, the plasma screening effect seems not to be the main reason for the decrease of energy loss. For the target polarization effect , in the Bohr velocity regime, the Barkas correction term can play a key role in the ion-atom collisions. Modeling the Barkas correction term based on the proposed classical energy loss formula, the experimental data of ions in the gas target can be well fitted by the calculated values. In the partially ionized plasma, the frequent thermal electron collisions can give rise to the atomic excitation of plasma target, correspondingly the Barkas correction term changes: it decreases with the fraction of excited atoms increasing. As a result, the energy loss decreases in our experiment. In the stopping of highly charged ions in a partially ionized low-density plasma, the collisions between ions and free electrons can produce an enhanced energy loss according to previous studies. However, the target polarization effect, especially the atomic excitations, can significantly reduce the energy loss, which is observed in our experiment. Therefore, the interaction between ions and partially ionized plasma should be further studied, and the Barkas correction can be a very important term.