New approach to energy loss measurements

Abstract A new approach to energy loss measurements is proposed. In the same experiment electronic stopping force (power) in gold, nickel, carbon, polycarbonate and Havar for 40 Ar, 28 Si, 16 O, 4 He and 1 H ions in the energy range 0.12–11 MeV/u has been measured. In this paper we give the full results for gold, nickel, and carbon and for 40 Ar, 16 O, 4 He and 1 H ions. Good agreement of the measured stopping force values for light ions with literature data is interpreted as the positive test of the experimental technique. The same technique used with heavy ions yields agreement with the published data only for energies above 1 MeV/u. At lower energies we observe progressively increasing d…