INTERACTION OF HEAVY-IONS WITH PLASMAS

Intense heavy ion beams have been used in recent years to study the pr operties of matter under extreme conditions. The intense heavy ion bea ms of the radio frequency accelerator MAXILAC at GSI were used at ion energies of 45 keV/u to produce the first heavy ion driven plasma and to study the hydrodynamic reactions of this plasma, Similar experiment s at 300 MeV/u ion energy using the heavy ion synchrotron SIS have now proven to be successful, The understanding and modelling of ion beam driven plasmas requires a precise knowledge of the stopping power in a plasma, Thus, in parallel to the ion beam driven plasmas, the stoppin g power of a fully ionized hydrogen plasma has been investigated exper imentally testing an ion energy range of 45 keV/u to 10 MeV/u at plasm a densities from 10(16) to 10(19) cm(-3). The stoppping power experime nts revealed the principle of new stopping behavior of ions in a plasm a. In comparison to cold, non-ionized matter an increased stopping in hydrogen plasma up to a factor 35 has been observed.