Charge-state changing processes for Ne ions passing through thin carbon foils

Abstract

We report on a method to measure charge-changing cross sections for ions passing through matter in nonequilibrium conditions. The charge states of an initial distribution are separated by applying a high voltage before they penetrate thin carbon foils; the charge states after those foils are identified using a high resolution magnetic spectrometer. Thus the full matrix of cross sections $\ensuremath{\sigma}{(q}_{i}{,q}_{f})$ and energy losses $\ensuremath{\Delta}{E(q}_{i}{,q}_{f})$ is obtained. The data are compared to calculated charge-state distributions based on microscopic cross sections for charge-changing processes in individual interaction steps and with a Monte Carlo simulation.