Charge-exchange straggling in equilibrium

A general expression has been derived that allows computation of charge-exchange straggling of swift heavy ions when many charge states are involved. Charge exchange is found to hinge on the variation of the stopping cross section with the ion charge and on the transient behavior of the charge population as a function of traveled pathlength. These effects appear factorized in the final formula. The focus of this paper is on straggling in charge equilibrium. The case of MeV/u sulfur ions in carbon has been used as an illustration. Charge-exchange straggling is found to be dominating straggling over a considerable range of beam energies.