Peculiarities of the energy loss spectrum of high energy particles penetrating thin silicon plates

Abstract

Energy losses in thin plates of silicon for protons, 12C ions and mixtures of nuclei from helium to oxygen with energy 3.65 GeV/nucleon, have been measured. The spectrum of the released energy shows a kink in the region of E = 5 MeV and is described by a sum of two exponentials. The slope of the more slowly decreasing exponential, which is the more important for estimation of radiation induced errors in semiconductor devices, shows a very weak dependence on the type of bombarding particles. Mathematical simulation of internuclear cascades confirms the experimental conclusions.