Stopping power of proton beam in a weakly non-ideal Xenon plasma

Experimental equipment for the investigations of stopping power of proton beam in explosively driven plasma is described. A 3 MeV 60 μs duration proton beam pulses delivered by 148.5 MHz ISTRA-36 RFQ linac at ITEP and compact metallic vacuum pumped chamber for explosions up to 150 g TNT were the main unit of this set-up. Differential pumping and fast valves proved to be sufficient for the protection of high vacuum beam line from the high pressure detonation products. Compact explosively driven cumulative shock tubes were worked out to generate uniform plasma slug behind powerful shock waves with the velocities of 10 km/s at the initial pressure of Xenon 50-200 kPa. Plasma parameters were: pressure 15-100 MPa, electron concentration 1E+19 - 1E+20 1/cc, nonideality parameter 0.2-0.5. Stopping power of proton beam was defined by the displacement of the position of the spot image of the beam on the scintillator screen after it's passing through the analyzing magnet and by time of flight method. The measured values of proton beam energy losses were 100-300 keV in dependence on plasma parameters. Comparison of the experimental data with the theoretical models was carried out.