Range behaviour of swift heavy ions in muscovite mica

The range behaviour of swift heavy ions in layered crystal has been investigated by bombarding the basal surface of natural muscovite mica with 93Nb (18.00 MeV/n) and 238U (10.00 MeV/n) ions at four different angles of incidence [viz: 30°, 45°, 60° and 75°). The range profiles and track etch rates of these ions were measured experimentally using simple and straightforward track etch technique. The experimental data reveals that with the increase of incident angle there is a systematic increase in range and optimum etching time, while track etch velocity decreases. The ranges of number of ions [viz: 197Au (15.69, 13.42, 11.40 MeV/n); 58Ni (11.56 MeV/n); 238U (15.36, 5.90 MeV/n) and 208Pb (13.80 MeV/n)] incident at 45° were also measured in the laboratory to test the reliability of SRIM codes. It is found that the prediction of range deficit is better for ions having high specific energy (18.00 MeV/n).