Stopping power of polymeric foils for swift heavy ions V. Sharma a , P.K. Diwan b, * , Pratibha c , S. Kumar c , S.A. Khan d , D.K. Avasthi d a Department of Physics, Chandigarh Engineering College, Landran, Mohali 140 307, India b Department of Physics, U.I.E.T, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra 136 119, India c Department of Physics, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra 136 119, India d Inter University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, Post Box-10502, New Delhi 110 067, India Received 16 May 2008; received in revised form 28 June 2008 Available online 8 July 2008 Abstract The stopping power of polypropylene PP(C 3 H 6 ) and Polyethylene naphthalate PEN (C 7 H 5 O 2 ) polymeric foils has been measured, using transmission technique, for Si, Cl and Ti ions covering the energy range 1.0–4.5 MeV/u. These measured stopping power values have been compared with the corresponding values generated from the widely used semi-empirical formulations and standard data tables. The applicability of these formulations and data tables, in the light of the experimental values, is highlighted. Ó 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 34.50.Bw Keywords: Polypropylene; Polyethylene naphthalate; Swift heavy ions 1. Introduction Stopping power for swift heavy ions is important not only to understand the basic ion–matter interaction process but also required in many scientific applications, where the swift heavy ions are used [1–7]. With the increasing use of ion beams in material science and nuclear physics experi- ments, it is essential to know the correct stopping power values for correct interpretation of data. The simultaneous measurements of stopping power with the same setup, which are used in such experiments, are not possible and therefore, the separate experiments need to be carried out. Practically, it is not possible to measure stopping power values for a large number of ion–target combina- tions, used in various experiments, because the numbers of such combinations are quite large. Therefore, it becomes quite important to rely on the various existing formulations [8–14] and standard data tables [15,16]. Most of these for- mulations [8–15] are semi-empirical in nature and are based on various fitting parameters. Thus, it is highly essential to establish the reliability and applicability of such formula- tions through comparison with the experimental stopping power values. Although the stopping power data for ele- mental targets is available in the literature, but the data for complex materials like polymers is quite limited. Keeping in mind, the utility of polymers as important materials in different scientific applications [17–22], in con- tinuation to our earlier studies [23–27], now we report the results of our stopping power measurements along with their comparison with the corresponding computed values based on various formulations for Si, Cl and Ti ions in Polypropylene (C 3 H 6 ) and Polyethylene naphthalate PEN (C 7 H 5 O 2 ) polymeric foils. 2. Experimental details The stopping power of Polypropylene PP (C 3 H 6 ) and PEN (C 7 H 5 O 2 ) polymeric foils has been measured for Si, Cl and Ti ions utilizing 15 UD Pelletron accelerator at Inter University Accelerator centre (IUAC), New Delhi, India. 0168-583X/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2008.07.001 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9896032200. E-mail address: diwanpk@sify.com (P.K. Diwan). www.elsevier.com/locate/nimb Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 266 (2008) 3988–3992 NIM B Beam Interactions with Materials & Atoms