ABSTRACT

The ideal theoretical treatment would self-consistently solve the entire problem of the motion of a particle in a general medium, considering all the excited levels of the target, as well as the properties of the charge cloud around the moving projectile. The combination of beam and hot target which is ideal for stopping studies is difficult to produce. Experiments in which the target is heated by the intense ion beam itself are highly dynamic: conditions in the target vary during the experiment and are neither uniform nor well known. The result of the present-day deficiency in experimental data is that evaluation of beam-target interaction processes has to rely on theoretical analysis. The differences between situations in which the classical or quantum pictures of the interactions apply were demonstrated, and the influence of the degeneracy of the electron gas was indicated. The simple presentation of stopping theory starts with a description of the plasma as a dielectric medium.