Angular distributions of ions scattered in thin carbon foils

Abstract

The energy loss and scattering distributions of energetic light particles transmitted through thin carbon foils are determined. The dependence of the energy loss on the scattering angle is reported for 40 keV nitrogen ions in a carbon foil 5.7 μg/cm 2 thick. The angular halfwidths are reported for H, He, Li, N, Ne and Ar ions from 3 to 54 keV. A very simple empirical relation is established for the angular halfwidths of ions scattered in thin carbon foils in terms of their mean energy and atomic number and of the foil thickness. The experimental angular distributions and their halfwidths are compared with the new Meyer theory on plural and multiple scattering of ions in amorphous targets. The agreement is shown to be good.