Stopping power of swift neon ions in dependence on the charge state in the non-equilibrium regime

Abstract

We report on measurements of charge changing cross-sections and energy losses in dependence on the initial and final charge state of Ne ions at an incident energy of 2 MeV/u penetrating thin carbon foils. Different initial charge states could be separated in energy by applying a high voltage in front of the carbon foils; the final charges and their energy loss were measured with a high-resolution magnetic spectrometer. We derived a consistent evolution of the charge state distribution solving the corresponding rate equations for the measured cross-sections. Including the charge state dependent energy losses, ΔE( q i, q f), stopping power values for frozen charge states, S( q), could be extracted. The experimental data are compared with different theoretical predictions.