Characterization of a Gafchromic film for the two-dimensional profile measurement of low-energy heavy-ion beams

The feasibility of the transverse intensity distribution measurement of low-energy (keV/u range) heavy-ion beams using radiochromic films is experimentally explored. We employ a Gafchromic radiochromic film, HD-V2, whose active layer is not laminated by a surface-protection layer. The coloration response of films irradiated with several ion beams is characterized in terms of optical density (OD) by reading the films with a general-purpose scanner. To explore the energy dependence of the film response widely, the kinetic energy of the beams is varied from 1.5 keV/u to 27 MeV/u. We have found that the coloration of HD-V2 films is induced by irradiation with low-energy ion beams of the order of 10 keV/u. The range of the beams is considerably shorter than the thickness of the film's active layer. The dependence of OD response on ion species is also discussed. We demonstrate that the Gafchromic film used here is useful for measuring the intensity distribution of such low-energy ion beams.