Energy Loss of Swift Heavy Ions: Fundamentals and Theoretical Formulations

The main interest of this chapter is to understand the fundamental energy loss processes through which incident energetic heavy ions lose their energies in the stopping medium. Fundamentals of ion interaction with matter are discussed where various modes of energy loss processes are explained. In the context of non-relativistic heavy ions, the contribution due to two types of energy loss modes, i.e., nuclear energy loss and electronic energy loss, is discussed in detail. Comparison between nuclear energy loss and electronic energy loss as a function of ion’s energy for Cu ion in Si target is shown. The fundamental Bohr energy loss equation is derived and extended by incorporating various correction terms. The most commonly used semi-empirical/empirical type energy loss formulations (Lindhard et al., Northcliffe and Schilling, Ziegler et al., Paul and Schinner, Huber et al., and Diwan et al.) are briefly introduced. Bragg’s rule, which determine the energy loss in polymers/compounds, is discussed. Finally, the importance of energy loss is highlighted.