Slowing down of heavy ions in a ionized metal target relevance to the heavy ion inertial fusion and experimental study proposal

By using a simplified model we have analysed the influence of the main target (Te, n, Zp) and incoming ion parameters (Zf, Ef) on the heavy ion ranges and on the energy deposition profiles. The model is an extension of the one used in the neutral beam heating in a tokamak like plasma [l]; although the plasma parameter ranges are very different for magnetic fusion and inertial confinement it is generally thought that the slowing down should be classical. In the paper we will identify some of the main uncertainties in the slowing down processes and to study these processes we propose an experimental set up consisting of a heavy ion probe crossing a laser created plasma target. The output energy of the heavy ion probe appears to be a sensitive parameter of the plasma characteristics.