Plasma screening effects on inelastic Compton scattering of photons by hydrogenic ions in strongly coupled classical plasmas

Plasma screening effects on inelastic Compton scattering of photons by hydrogenic ions in uniformly distributed strongly coupled classical plasmas are investigated. The interaction potential in strongly coupled plasmas is given by the ion-sphere model. The screened radial atomic wave functions and energy eigenvalues for the 1s and 2p states of the hydrogenic target ion in strongly coupled plasmas are obtained by the Ritz variational and perturbational calculations. The expression for the lowest-order transition matrix element is obtained by a two photon process associated with terms quadratic in the vector potential A. The inelastic Compton scattering cross section from the 1s ground state to the 2p excited state is obtained as a function of the incident photon energy including the plasma screening effects through the ion-sphere radius. In strongly coupled plasmas, the plasma screening effect on the inelastic Compton scattering cross section is found to be stronger than that on the photoionization cross section. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(00)02503-9].