Pulse height defect and window energy loss of low energy ions in surface barrier detectors

Abstract We present measurements of pulse height defect and window energy loss of carbon, nitrogen, neon, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, argon, iron, and krypton incident on silicon surface barrier detectors. The kinetic energy of the incident ions ranges from 0 to 700 keV per charge state. Our measurement technique is such that the data require no theoretical correction. We also present individual theoretical calculations for the above ions based on the work of Lindhard et al. and Haines and Whitehead. For the pulse height defect, the measurements are lower than theory by about 20% for incident energies up to about 300 keV. This energy is higher for argon (700 keV) and neon (2000 keV). Above this energy, the measured pulse height defect rises to about the calculated. This rise seems to be linked to a change of the window energy loss from the expected velocity proportionality to energy proportionality.