ON MEASUREMENTS OF STOPPING POWER IN EXPLOSIVELY DRIVEN PLASMA TARGETS

A new method to generate plasma targets with electron densities n(e) g reater than or equal to 10(20) cm(-3) behind strong shock waves to stu dy the energy loss of protons and heavy ions is discussed. Estimates o n the stopping power in hydrogen, xenon and argon were carried out. It is shown that shock velocities of more than 20 km/s in xenon and argo n and of more than 60 km/s in hydrogen are needed to get a major contr ibution of free electrons. The problems of matching of large scale acc elerator facility and explosive technique are considered. It is sugges ted to use a small( < 150 g TNT) vacuum pumped explosive metallic cham bers with fast valves in such experiments. Details on the construction and performance of small-sized explosively driven generators of stron g shock waves are presented. The experimental setup including the prot on accelerator ISTRA-36 and the explosive chamber, which have been ins talled in ITEP, is also presented. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.