The correlation effects on the wake field and stopping power for two ion-beam pulses moving in a background plasma

The particle-in-cell simulations are performed to study the wake field as well as stopping power of two ion-beam pulses passing through a background plasma. The influence of plasma turbulence induced by the first pulse to the second pulse is discussed. When the density of the first pulse is much larger than the second one, the wake field in the plasma is dominated by the first pulse. In this case, the energy loss of the second pulse is completely determined by the distances between the two pulses. If the second pulse is located on the “negative area” of the wake field in plasmas, its energy loss will be greatly enhanced compared with the results of the individual-projectile. On the other side, the second pulse can be even accelerated when it is in the “positive area” of the wake field. The wake field induced by two identical pulses is also studied, and we find that the wake field can be enhanced due to the superimposed effect of the beam pulses. Otherwise, the wake field can be totally canceled out.