Monte Carlo approach to calculate proton stopping in warm dense matter within particle-in-cell simulations.

A Monte Carlo approach to proton stopping in warm dense matter is implemented into an existing particle-in-cell code. This approach is based on multiple electron-electron, electron-ion, and ion-ion binary collision and accounts for both the free and the bound electrons in the plasmas. This approach enables one to calculate the stopping of particles in a more natural manner than existing theoretical treatment. In the low-temperature limit, when "all" electrons are bound to the nucleus, the stopping power coincides with the predictions from the Bethe-Bloch formula and is consistent with the data from the National Institute of Standard and Technology database. At higher temperatures, some of the bound electrons are ionized, and this increases the stopping power in the plasmas, as demonstrated by A. B. Zylstra et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 215002 (2015)]PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.114.215002. At even higher temperatures, the degree of ionization reaches a maximum and thus decreases the stopping power due to the suppression of collision frequency between projected proton beam and hot plasmas in the target.