Three-dimensional (3D) simulations of electron beams propagating in high-energy-density plasmas using the quasistatic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code QuickPIC demonstrate a significant increase in stopping power when beam electrons mutually interact via their wakes. Each beam electron excites a plasma wave wake of wavelength $\sim 2\pi c/{\omega }_{pe}$, where $c$ is the speed of light and ${\omega }_{pe}$ is the background plasma frequency. We show that a discrete collection of electrons undergoes a beam-plasma-like instability caused by mutual particle-wake interactions that causes electrons to bunch in the beam, even for beam densities $n_b$ for which fluid theory breaks down. This bunching enhances the beam's stopping power, which we call “correlated stopping,” and the effect increases with the “correlation number” $N_b\equiv n_b{(c/{\omega }_{pe})}^3$. For example, a beam of monoenergetic 9.7 MeV electrons with $N_b=1/8$, in a cold background plasma with $n_e={10}^{26}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$ (450 g ${\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$ DT), has a stopping power of $2.28\pm 0.04$ times the single-electron value, which increases to $1220\pm 5$ for $N_b=64$. The beam also experiences transverse filamentation, which eventually limits the stopping enhancement.

• Received 21 October 2019
• Revised 30 January 2021
• Accepted 21 July 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.104.035203