Theoretical energy straggling of 252Cf fission fragments in various absorbers

Abstract

A new theoretical formula of energy straggling for heavy ions such as 252Cf fission fragments in various stopping media has been calculated in terms of incident heavy ion energy, differential scattering cross-section, electronic and nuclear stopping cross-section (data taken from Lindhard and co-workers [1,2]). However, no theory yet exists which is capable of predicting straggling behaviour of fission fragments. Comparison between our theoretical predictions and the previous work of Al-Bedri [3] and Sykes [4] has been made. Good agreement has been achieved at the beginning of the range of fission fragments but towards the end of the range our theoretical results were greater than the experimental results by about 0–20%. This discrepancy could be caused by the stopping cross-section, because the experimental stopping cross-section is greater than the theoretical data by about 0–30% [5–8].