Charge states distribution of 3350 keV He ions channeled in silicon

Abstract When an ion beam is aligned along a major crystalline axis the dominant interaction is with valence electrons. In this condition the charge exchange processes mostly concern the interaction between the incident ion and a quasi-free electron gas and a strong reduction of the charge-changing probabilities is expected. In this work, 3350 keV He + and He 2+ ions were aligned at small tilt angles about the 〈1 1 0〉 axis of a 4650 A silicon crystalline membrane. The charge state distribution (CSD) of the transmitted ions was detected by an electro-magnetic analyzer having a very small acceptance angle. In these conditions the equilibration of the CSD was not yet reached and this allowed, making use of simple approximations, for the measurement of the valence electron loss cross-section.