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

TL;DR

This paper investigates how an intense radiation field affects the stopping power of ions in a plasma, revealing that the RF can significantly alter energy loss depending on ion velocity and intensity.

Contribution

It provides analytical and numerical analysis of ion stopping power in plasma under intense radiation, highlighting RF-induced modifications not previously characterized.

Findings

RF reduces energy loss for slow ions

RF increases energy loss for high-velocity ions

High-intensity RF can accelerate ions at high velocities

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 $\omega_{0} >\omega_{p}$, where $\omega_{0}$ is the frequency of the RF and $\omega_{p}$ 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.