A Time of Flight–Energy spectrometer for stopping power measurements in Heavy Ion–ERD analysis at iThemba LABS

Abstract

The quantitative analysis of thin layers using Heavy Ion–Elastic Recoil Detection (HI–ERD) can be reliably performed if the stopping powers of the probing ions and recoils in a given target matrix are known accurately. Unfortunately for many projectile/target combinations experimental data is limited and where available, deviations of up to 50% between experiment and theory have been reported. This presentation describes the assembly of a Time of Flight–Energy ( ToF–E) detector system developed for HI–ERD analysis and adapted for stopping power measurements at iThemba LABS. First results from energy loss measurements of 0.1–0.5 MeV/nucleon 28Si and 84Kr ions in ZrO 2 are presented and compared with predictions of the widely used SRIM2003 (Stopping Range of Ions in Matter).