Vanishing Electronic Energy Loss of Very Slow Light Ions in Insulators with Large Band Gaps

Abstract

Electronic energy loss of light ions in nanometer films of materials with large band gaps has been studied for very low velocities. For LiF, a threshold velocity is observed at 0.1 a.u. (250 eV/u), below which the ions move without transferring energy to the electronic system. For KCl, a lower (extrapolated) threshold velocity is found, identical for H and He ions. For SiO2, no clear velocity threshold is observed for He particles. For protons and deuterons, electronic stopping is found to perfectly fulfill velocity scaling, as expected for binary ion-electron interaction.