ENHANCED ENERGY-LOSS OF SHORT PULSES OF ELECTRONS IN PLASMA

The enhancement of energy loss of short pulses of electrons in plasma has been experimentally observed. An enhancement of up to 3.5X10(4) ov er single-particle losses was observed when a 15 ps electron bunch was injected into a preformed target plasma with an electron density of a pproximately 10(13) cm(-3). This matches the theoretical prediction th at the energy loss should he enhanced when the temporal duration of th e electron bunch is approximately equal to pi/omega(pe), where omega(p e) is the plasma frequency of the target plasma. 2D numerical simulati ons are in good agreement with the observations. (C) 1997 American Ins titute of Physics.