CHARGED-PARTICLE SPECTROSCOPY

A charged particle going through any material will have interactions affecting its detection in two ways. First, the energy spectrum is distorted because of the energy loss caused by the interactions in any mass interposed between source and detector. Second, a particle entering the active detector volume will interact there at least once and will be detected, i.e., the efficiency is practically 100 percent. 

Because any energy loss outside the detector is undesirable, the task of the experimenter is to design a spectrometer with zero mass between the source and the detector. Such an ideal system cannot be built, and the only practical alternative is a spectrometer that results in such a small energy loss outside the detector that reliable corrections can be applied to the measured spectrum. 

For heavy ions, a phenomenon called the pulse height defect (PHD) seems to have an important effect on energy calibration. As a result of the PHD, the relationship between pulse height and ion energy is mass dependent. In semiconductor detectors, experiments have shown that the PHD depends on the 

To avoid unnecessary energy loss, the source of the charged particles should be prepared with special care. The heavier the ion, the more important the source thickness becomes and the more difficult the source preparation is. 

This chapter discusses the subjects of energy loss and straggling, pulse height defect, energy calibration methods, and source preparation, from the point of view of their effect on spectroscopy. All the effects are not equally important for all types of particles. Based on similarity in energy loss behavior, the charged particles are divided into three groups, as in Chap. 4  

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Charged particle spectroscopy using the (t,p) reaction has been employed... 

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