Ion correlation effect on electron screening of moderately coupled plasma

Fuyang Zhou; Guangwei Meng; Yizhi Qu; Yong Wu; Jianguo Wang

doi:10.1063/5.0299045

Volume 11 Issue 4

Jul. 2026

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Fuyang Zhou, Guangwei Meng, Yizhi Qu, Yong Wu, Jianguo Wang. Ion correlation effect on electron screening of moderately coupled plasma[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2026, 11(4): 047203. doi: 10.1063/5.0299045

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Fuyang Zhou, Guangwei Meng, Yizhi Qu, Yong Wu, Jianguo Wang. Ion correlation effect on electron screening of moderately coupled plasma[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2026, 11(4): 047203. doi: 10.1063/5.0299045

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Ion correlation effect on electron screening of moderately coupled plasma

doi: 10.1063/5.0299045

Fuyang Zhou^{1
,
,},
Guangwei Meng^1
,,
Yizhi Qu²,
Yong Wu^{1, 3
,
,
,},
Jianguo Wang¹

1.
National Key Laboratory of Computational Physics, Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100088, People’s Republic of China
2.
School of Optoelectronics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China
3.
Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China

More Information

Corresponding author: a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: zhou_fuyang@iapcm.ac.cn and wu_yong@iapcm.ac.cn
Received Date: 2025-08-25
Accepted Date: 2026-03-19

Available Online: 2026-07-24

Publish Date: 2026-07-24

Abstract

Abstract

For moderately/strongly coupled plasmas, modeling of the electron screening effect remains an unresolved problem, owing to the complicated many-body correlations among the surrounding electrons and ions. In this work, we investigate the ion correlation effect on electron screening of moderately coupled plasmas using an atomic-state-dependent electron-screening model. It is found that the electron density around a target ion is significantly enhanced by the ion correlation effect from surrounding ions. By considering this ion correlation effect, the electron density fluctuation induced by the target ion becomes non-spherically symmetric, which causes traditional electron screening models to underestimate the screening effects, especially for moderately/strongly coupled and weakly degenerate plasmas. The present model and findings are validated by molecular dynamics simulations of moderately coupled ultracold neutral plasmas. For moderately coupled plasmas, the Coulomb logarithm is found to decrease by about 10%–30% owing to the ion correlation effect, which should be considered when modeling plasma effects on atomic processes, radiation transport, and thermodynamic properties.

Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflicts to disclose.
Author Contributions
Fuyang Zhou: Conceptualization (equal); Data curation (equal); Formal analysis (equal); Investigation (equal); Methodology (equal); Software (equal); Validation (equal); Visualization (equal); Writing – original draft (equal). Guangwei Meng: Conceptualization (equal); Formal analysis (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal). Yizhi Qu: Conceptualization (equal); Formal analysis (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal). Yong Wu: Conceptualization (equal); Formal analysis (equal); Writing – original draft (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal). Jianguo Wang: Conceptualization (equal); Formal analysis (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal).
The data that support the plots within this paper are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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References(40)

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