PNNL

Abstract

Electronic energy loss of charged particles in materials is a fundamental process accountable for the unique response of materials in applications of advanced nuclear power, radiation detectors, and advanced processing of electronic devices. For over a century, the stopping of energetic ions in matter has been a subject of great experimental and theoretical interest. In spite of a long history of studies, the electronic stopping force is not adequately described over all ranges of ions, energies and targets, particularly in the case of heavy ions in compound targets. In this study, stopping powers for ions in ceramic oxides of SiO2, ZrO2, Ta2O5 and Nb2O5 have been determined using a time-of-flight energy elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-E ERDA) set-up. In transmission geometry, the energy loss of heavy ions in the thin foils was measured over a continuous range of energies from a few 10 keV/nucleon to over a thousand keV/nucleon using the ToF data that was tagged by a Si detector with and without the stopping foils. Comparisons are made with the SRIM-2003 (The Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter) predictions, and deviations are discussed.