Cross sections for medium energy He ions scattered from Hf and Au atoms

The elastic scattering cross sections for medium energy He ions incident on Ni, Hf and Au atoms were measured precisely using a toroidal electrostatic analyzer. We prepared the targets of Ni(∼1 nm)/HfO2(1.5 nm)/Si(0 0 1) and Ni(∼1 nm)/Au(∼0.5 nm)/Si(1 1 1) and performed in situ ion scattering measurement under ultrahigh vacuum condition. The absolute amounts of Ni, Hf and Au were determined by Rutherford backscattering using 1.5 MeV He ions at a scattering angle of 150°. The scattering cross sections for Hf and Au were normalized by those for Ni to avoid the ambiguities of the number of incident particles, solid angle subtended by a detector, detection efficiency and the He+ fractions for the emerging He ions from the surfaces. The results obtained are compared with the simple Lee–Hart formula and the calculated values using the Molière and ZBL potentials and the potentials derived from the Hartree–Fock–Slater wave functions.