Spectra of secondary electrons generated in water by energetic ions

Abstract

The energy distributions of secondary electrons produced by energetic carbon ions (in the energy range used, e.g., in hadron therapy), incident on liquid water, are discussed. For low-energy ions, a parametrization of the singly differential ionization cross sections is introduced, based on tuning the position of the Bragg peak. The resulting parametrization allows a fast calculation of the energy spectra of secondary electrons at different depths along the ion's trajectory, especially near the Bragg peak. At the same time, this parametrization provides penetration depths for a broad range of initial-ion energies within the therapeutically accepted error. For high-energy ions, the energy distribution is obtained with a use of the dielectric-response function approach. Different models are compared and discussed.