Stopping power contribution due to target and projectile excitation/ionization: a comparative study

A comparative study of stopping power codes for different ions in compounds has been made by comparing the computed stopping power values using different codes with the corresponding experimental data. Two computer codes, semiempirical SRIM2006.02 and theoretical CasP3.2 have been used to evaluate and compare the stopping powers of different compounds for protons (125 KeV), helium (500 KeV) and lithium ion (175 KeV) projectiles. The energy behaviour of stopping power of various compounds for helium ion in the energy range (0.3–2.0 MeV) has been studied. The merits and demerits of the adopted formulations are highlighted. It has been observed that the calculation based on SRIM2006.02 provides the best agreement with the experimental data as compared to CasP3.2 code. The stopping power contribution due to target and projectile excitation/ionization at low energies has been evaluated and discussed with reference to CasP3.2 code. From these comparative studies it has been concluded that the target and projectile excitation-ionization increases the stopping power (>20%) at lower energies.