The influence of plasma‐induced energy deposition effects, the equation of state, thermal ionization, pulse shaping, and radiation on ion‐beam‐driven expansions of plane metal targets

In a previous paper by Long and Tahir [Phys. Fluids 2 9, 275 (1986)], the motion of plane targets irradiated by ion beams whose energy deposition was assumed to be independent of the ion energy, and the temperature and density of the plasma, was analyzed. In this paper, the analytic solution is extended in order to include the effects of a temperature‐and density‐dependent energy deposition as a result of electron excitation, an improved equation of state, thermal ionization, a pulse shape, and radiation losses. The change in the energy deposition with temperature and density leads to range shortening and an increased power deposition in the target. It is shown how the analytic theory can be used to analyze experiments to measure the enhanced energy deposition. In order to further analyze experiments, numerical simulations are presented which include the plasma‐induced effects on the energy deposition. It is shown that since the change in the range is due to both decrease in density and the increase in temperature, it is not possible to separate these two effects in present experiments. Therefore, the experiments which measure the time‐dependent energy of the ions emerging from the back side of a plane target do not as yet measure the energy loss as a function of the density and temperature of the plasma or of the energy of the ion, but only an averaged loss over certain ranges of these physical quantities.