Probing the SUSY Higgs boson couplings to scalar leptons at high-energy e(+)e(-) colliders

We discuss the production at e(+)e(-) colliders of Higgs bosons: in associa tion with both the scalar leptons and the lightest neutralinos in the Minim al Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. While the rates for asso ciated Higgs production with neutralinos and first/second generation slepto ns are rather tiny, the cross section for the production of the lightest Hi ggs boson h with scalar tau lepton pairs can reach the femtobarn level at c .m. energies at and above 500 GeV in favorable regions of the parameter spa ce, making this process potentially detectable at a high-luminosity e(+)e(- ) collider, in particular in the gamma gamma option. This would provide a d etermination of the h<(<tau>)over tilde><(<tau>)over tilde> coupling and op ens up the possibility of measuring the parameter tan beta. (C) 2001 Publis hed by Elsevier Science B.V.