Energy-loss of He ions in carbon allotropes studied by elastic resonance in backscattering spectra

Abstract

Backscattering spectra for 4He ions incident on carbon allotropes have been measured in the energy range from 4.30 to 4.95MeV in steps of 50–100keV at scattering angles of 106° and 170°. We used three carbon allotropes: graphite, diamond and amorphous carbon. For all these allotropes, we can observe the sharp (4He, 12C) elastic nuclear resonance at the He ion energy of 4.265MeV in the backscattering spectra. By varying the incident He energy, we have systematically analyzed the profiles of the resonance peaks to study the energy-loss processes: stopping cross-sections and energy-loss straggling around the interesting region of the stopping maximum at about 500keV. We focus on the resonance profiles and investigate an allotropic effect concerning the energy-loss. Furthermore, an energy bunching effect on the straggling is presented and the mechanism is discussed.