In this article, we analyze the sensitivity of the charge and energy distribution of a swift heavy ion beam interacting with a dense plasma on the thermodynamic and dynamic properties of the target. We study more particularly partially ionized carbon targets in which both the bound and the free electrons yield a significant contribution to the stopping. The emphasis is put on direct and indirect correlation between charge transfer and stopping. We show that nonlinearities, appearing in the interaction process for heavy ions, increase the dependency of the stopping on the plasma properties, indicating that diagnostics based on the analysis of the beam ions can provide valuable information on the target properties.

A model for the stopping power for strong beam–plasma coupling is presented. The model calculates the stopping power through a T-matrix approach which correctly describes close binary collisions. A velocity-dependent screening length is used in the beam particle–plasma electron interaction to include dynamic screening effects. The model has the correct limiting behavior for low and high beam particle velocities and agrees well with simulation data up to very high coupling strengths. Compared to other theories, which include strong correlations and/or dynamic screening only approximately, a smaller energy loss has been found; this leads to a considerably longer stopping range.