Charge-state dependence of stopping power for light ions penetrating thin carbon foils at low velocity

In this work. an attempt to interpret the charge-state-dependent stopping o f slow ions using quantum mechanical scattering: theory was made. The elect ronic stopping of differently charged ions (0 less than or equal to q less than or equal to Z(1)) was calculated using the nonlinear density-functiona l description for the interaction of the ions with the electron gas of the target. Our simulated charge-state-dependent energy loss was compared with experimental data. For heavy ions such as argon, a higher stopping was obta ined in the theoretical prediction for highly ionized argon ions (q > 7), T his indicates that a relaxation of the ion charge-state during the passage through thin foils has to be considered for heavy ions. (C) 2000 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.