CHARGE STATE DISTRIBUTIONS OF SWIFT HEAVY IONS BEHIND VARIOUS SOLID TARGETS (36 ≤Zp≤ 92, 18 MeV/u ≤E≤ 44 MeV/u)

Abstract Noting the lack of and the increasing need for information concerning heavy ion stripping in the intermediate velocity regime, we have studied a large number of ion-target systems experimentally. We present experimental charge state distributions obtained at the GANIL accelerator for several projectiles (36 ≤ Z p ≤ 92) with energies ranging from 18 MeV/u to 44 MeV/u, emerging from various target foils (4 ≤ Z t ≤ 79) of natural isotopic composition. The target thicknesses (from 1 μg/cm 2 up to several mg/cm 2 ) are chosen to cover the pre- and post-charge-state equilibrium regimes. Charge state fractions, mean charge state, charge distribution width, and emerging ion energy are tabulated for each of the 107 projectile–target element–target thickness combinations. We also present an improvement of the semi-empirical formulae proposed by Baron et al. to predict the mean charge states and the distribution widths at equilibrium. These formulae are compared with the available experimental data.