Range of heavy ions in solids: A comparative study

In the present work, a stack composed of two sub-stacks of CR-39 and Lexan polycarbonate sheets separated by a few A1 sheets of total thickness ≈5 mm has been exposed at an angle of 45° (w.r.t. the detector surface) to Fe, Al and N ions with energies 199, 123, 99.5 MeV/n, respectively, from the heavy ion accelerator (BEVALAC) at Berkeley, U.S.A. After opening the stack, the detector sheets were etched under optimum etching conditions and the range of these ions in the stack was determined. Theoretical calculations of range for these ions in the stack as well as for some other heavy ions (e.g. U, Au, La, Fe, Ar, Ne, N) in different media have been made using the formulations of Benton and Henke, Mukherjee and Nayak, Ziegler et al. and Hubert et al. Finally a comparison has been made with the experimental results.