Ionization Energy Losses of Low-Energy Alpha Particles in Methylal

Abstract

The energy losses of alpha particles have been measured in Methylal gas and compared with the Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter SRIM-2008. The alpha particle energy losses have been experimentally determined for 239Pu α-particle source using a dedicated experimental setup based on low-pressure multi-wire proportional chambers (LPMWPC); such losses are observed to deviate significantly from the calculated ones. The deviations suggested that in the low (≤ 1 MeV) energy region the stopping powers given by SRIM-2013 might be too high of about 5-10%.