Ion Stopping

When the implanted ion enters the target material there are two main effects that causes an energy loss:

• elastic collisions with the nuclei of the target material

• and inelastic collisions with the electrons.

Means the total stopping power $S$ defined as the energy loss per unit path length of the ion can be defined as:

$$S = \left( \frac{dE}{dx} \right)_{\mbox{nuclear}} + \left( \frac{dE}{dx}\right)_{\mbox{electronic}}.$$ (2)

From fig.  it can be seen that at low ion velocities nuclear stopping dominates, whereas at higher velocities the energy is transfered to the electrons of the target material.

Figure: Ion stopping