Stopping power of nonideal, partially ionized plasmas

The stopping power of strongly coupled, partially ionized plasmas is investigated for charged beam particles with arbitrary velocities. Our approach is based on kinetic equations of the Boltzmann type that are suitably generalized to describe three-particle collisions. In this way, we consider elastic collisions between the beam and free plasma particles as well as the ionization and excitation of composite plasma particles by beam particle impact. Explicit expressions for both contributions are given in terms of the momentum transfer cross section that has been generalized for three-particle collisions. For fast beam particles, we obtain a generalized Bethe formula that includes correction terms due to the nonideality of the target plasma. Results are shown for hydrogen, carbon, and argon plasmas. Considerable modifications compared to the ideal behavior arise for strongly coupled plasmas. In particular, we are able to describe the Mott transition in the stopping power of dense, partially ionized plasmas.