Stopping of ions in a plasma irradiated by an intense laser field

Abstract

The inelastic interaction between heavy ions and an electron plasma in the presence of an intense radiation field (RF) is investigated. The stopping power of the test ion averaged with a period of the RF has been calculated assuming that ω0 > ωp, where ω0 is the frequency of the RF and ωp is the plasma frequency. In order to highlight the effect of the radiation field we present a comparison of our analytical and numerical results obtained for nonzero RF with those for vanishing RF. It has been shown that the RF may strongly reduce the mean energy loss for slow ions while increasing it at high-velocities. Moreover, it has been shown, that acceleration of the projectile ion due to the RF is expected at high-velocities and in the high-intensity limit of the RF, when the quiver velocity of the plasma electrons exceeds the ion velocity.

Stopping of a relativistic electron beam in a plasma irradiated by an intense laser field

“…Furthermore, it may exceed the field-free SP and change the sign due to plasma irradiation by intense (α > 1) laser field. These properties of a nonrelativistic SP have been obtained previously for a classical plasma (Nersisyan & Akopyan, 1999) as well as for a fully degenerated plasma (Nersisyan & Deutsch, 2011). The effect of the acceleration of the projectile particle shown in Fig.…”

“…This expression has been previously obtained and studied by many authors (Tavdgiridze & Tsintsadze, 1970;Aliev et al, 1971;Arista et al, 1989Arista et al, , 1990Akopyan et al, 1997;Nersisyan & Akopyan, 1999;Nersisyan & Deutsch, 2011) assuming nonrelativistic beam of charged particles. Thus, inserting Eq.…”

“…By comparison, the SP in the absence of the RF is given by (Nersisyan & Akopyan, 1999;Nersisyan & Deutsch, 2011)…”

“…For plasma targets, on the other hand, it has been obtained that the energy loss is reduced in the presence of a laser field when the projectile velocity is smaller than the electron thermal velocity (Arista et al, 1990;Nersisyan & Deutsch, 2011). Moreover, the reduction of the energy loss rate increases with decreasing the angle between the projectile velocity and the polarization vector of the laser field (Nersisyan & Deutsch, 2011). Next, an interesting effect has been obtained by Akopyan et al (1997) considering the oscillatory motion of the light projectile particles in the laser field.…”

“…In this case the energy loss depends on the projectile charge sign and mass and, therefore, results in a different stopping powers for electrons and positrons. In recent years special attention has been also paid to the regimes of high intensities of the laser field when the quiver velocity of the plasma electron exceeds the projectile velocity (Nersisyan & Akopyan, 1999;Nersisyan & Deutsch, 2011). It has been shown that the projectile particles can be even accelerated in a plasma due to the parametric effects excited by an intense laser field.…”