Damage cross sections and surface track dimensions of biomolecular surfaces bombarded by swift-heavy-ions

Abstract

We measured damage cross sections of the peptide LHRH for various MeV ions with the same velocity and compared the data with simple hit theory calculations. We employed scanning force microscopy to measure dimensions of surface tracks in amino acid L-valine induced by individual incident MeV ions of various stopping powers but with the same velocity. Areas of surface tracks and damage cross sections showed linear dependences on electronic stopping power. The area of a surface track of L-valine was significantly larger than previously obtained damage cross sections of amino acids for similar incident ions.