ICRU Report 49, Stopping Power and Ranges for Protons and Alpha Particles

ABSTRACT

This Report contains stopping-power and range tables for protons and alpha particles. The tables include data for 73 materials, and cover the energy region from 1 keV to 10000 MeV for protons, and to 1000 MeV for alpha particles (4He ions). The main tables contain collision (electronic), nuclear, and total stopping powers; csda ranges; and detour factors (ratios of average penetration depths to csda ranges). Additional tables contain, for twenty materials, collision stopping powers and csda ranges for negatively charged pions. At low energies (below approximately 0.5 MeV for protons and 2 MeV for alpha particles) the tabulated collision stopping powers are based on experimental data; at high energies they are based on Bethe’s stopping power theory with semi-empirical mean excitation energies and shell corrections, and with corrections for departures from the first Born approximation. Also included in the report is a survey of the many experimental methods that have been used for measuring charged-particle stopping powers, with brief descriptions of the procedures and indications of their advantages and disadvantages.

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