Excitation of Swift Heavy Ions in Foil Targets. IV. Preequilibrium Energy Losses and Mean Charge States

Abstract

Studies have been made of the approach to energy-loss and charge-state equilibrium of initially pure charge states of ions, transmitted through thin carbon targets. Ions of Li, F and C1 at 3 MeV per AMU were used. Detailed observations were made of outgoing energy losses and charge-state distributions, for outgoing charges equal to those ingoing. A Monte Carlo analysis is made of the charge changing processes, which allows calculation of energy losses due to projectile charge exchange. The residual electronic target-ionisation loss is analysed to predict in-target charge states of the projectile ions. Using these, a comparison is made between the in-target effective charge for target ionisation, and the averaged ionic charge which fits charge-exchange data.