Nonlinear energy loss of highly charged heavy ions

For slow, highly charged heavy ions strong coupling effects in the energy transfer from the projectile–ion to an electron target plasma become important. A theoretical description of this nonlinear ion stopping has to go beyond the standard approaches like the dielectric linear response or the binary collision model which are strictly valid only at weak ion–target coupling. Here we outline an improved treatment which is based on a suitable combination of binary collision and linear response contributions. As has been verified for isotropic, nonmagnetized electron plasmas by comparison with simulations, this approach well reproduces the essential features of nonlinear stopping up to moderate coupling strength. Its extension to anisotropic, magnetized electron plasmas basically involves the fully numerical determination of the momentum and energy transfer in binary ion–electron collisions in the presence of a magnetic field. First results of such calculations are presented and discussed.