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 of slow ions using quantum mechanical scattering theory was made. The electronic stopping of differently charged ions (0<=q<=Z1) was calculated using the non-linear density-functional 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 obtained in the theoretical prediction for highly ionized argon ions (q > 7) . This indicates that a relaxation of the ion charge state during the passage through thin foils has to be considered for heavy ions.