Peculiarities of the energy loss spectrum of high energy particles penetrating thin silicon plates

Abstract Energy losses in thin plates of silicon for protons, 12 C ions and mixtures of nuclei from helium to oxygen with energy 3.65 GeV/nucleon, have been measured. The spectrum of the released energy shows a kink in the region of E = 5 MeV and is described by a sum of two exponentials. The slope of the more slowly decreasing exponential, which is the more important for estimation of radiation induced errors in semiconductor devices, shows a very weak dependence on the type of bombarding particles. Mathematical simulation of internuclear cascades confirms the experimental conclusions.