Eur. Phys. J. D 15, 293-300 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170143

Experimental study and Monte Carlo simulation of the correlation between electron emission and stopping power for swift proton impact on amorphous carbon target

¹ Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche Ions Lasers CIRIL (CEA-CNRS-ISMRA), B.P. 5133, rue Claude Bloch, 14070 Caen Cedex 05, France
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki, Greece
³ Greek Atomic Energy Commission, 15310 Agia Paraskevi, Greece

Corresponding author: ^a rothard@ganil.fr

Received: 9 March 2001
Published online: 15 September 2001

Abstract

It is usually well accepted that for swift protons, the induced backward and forward electron emission yield is proportional to the projectile electronic stopping power. This was observed in particular for thin amorphous carbon foils. However, this law was established from a non extensive set of experimental data and somewhat confirmed by rough macroscopic theories. We then developed a standard Monte Carlo simulation to predict the yield dependence on proton energy [0.5-10 MeV] and for a wide range of foil thickness. After evaluating the reliability of this simulation, we showed and explained why the law of proportionality cannot generally hold for forward electron emission. In particular, the ratio between forward yield and stopping power generally depends on foil thickness and proton energy. We performed a new experiment that confirmed our theoretical predictions.