Laser-assisted stopping power of a hot plasma for a system of correlated ions

The laser-assisted stopping power of a fully ionized plasma for the system of two correlated test charges is investigated. The general expressions for the stopping power are applied to a low-density and a low-temperature plas ma in a low-energy beam-plasma experiment [J. Jacoby et al., Phys. Rev. Let t. 74, 1550 (1995)]. The effect of the interaction between the beam test ch arges, described by a correlation term, is to increase the stopping power o f the laser-assisted plasma compared to the case where the charges are infi nitely separated. However, the laser field affects the correlation between the test charges and contributes to decrease the plasma stopping power, as compared to the laser-free dicluster case, [S1063-651X(99)02912-8].