BASIC FEATURES OF CORRELATED ION STOPPING IN PLASMAS

We reconsider correlated ion stopping in plasmas with the aim to empha size the basic features and their underlying physics. For a better und erstanding of the effects connected with correlated ion stopping, it i s useful to distinguish two types of correlated ion stopping, characte rized by a small or large ratio of the correlation length of the ions to the screening length in the plasma. These two types of correlated i on stopping are of rather different character. We describe and explain these differences and give some generic examples of ion structures an d ion clusters to demonstrate the basic features of both types of corr elated stopping. This shows that only the short-range correlations alw ays yield an enhanced stopping, whereas the long-range correlations, i n general, reduce the stopping compared to single, individual ions. We mainly consider classical plasmas; the basic features, however, remai n unchanged for a jellium target as well as for a plasma at any degene racy.