Systematic measurements of electron and proton multiple scattering with energies up to 5 MEV

Abstract

The goal of the present project is to collect a reference set of measurements of electron and proton multiple elastic scattering with rigorous quantification of the statistical and systematic uncertainties. The electron and proton beams available at the Laboratório do Acelerador Linear (LAL) (energies continuously variable from 10 keV to 100 keV, and of 1.9 MeV and 5.0 MeV) and at the Laboratório de Análise de Materiais por Feixes Iônicos (LAMFI) (energies continuously variable from 800 keV to 4.0 MeV), respectively, will be used for the measurements. This is a fundamental issue for several applications ranging from depth profiling in ion beam analysis to absorbed dose localisation in radiation therapy and momentum resolution of tracking detectors in particle physics. Unfortunately, almost all existing experimental data are rather old and lack a complete quantification of the systematic uncertainties. Recent data were not measured under well controlled conditions. A key ingredient of the present project will be a careful characterisation of: i) target thickness; ii) target contamination and iii) target non uniformity. An extensive range of Z-particle energy-target thickness combinations will be covered searching for the most sensitive conditions to discriminate between different theoretical approaches and Monte Carlo implementations. Long-term benefits include the implantation of a competence on electron spectroscopy at LAL and the setup of a long term cooperation between LAL and LAMFI with the goal to achieve a consistent description of the interaction of electrons and protons with matter for other processes beyond multiple scattering. (AU)