Guided transmission of highly charged ions through nanocapillaries in PET: Study of the energy dependence

We measured the energy dependence of the transmission of Ne7+-ions through nanocapillaries with 100 nm diameter and 10 μm lengths in an energy range from 1 keV up to 10 keV. The nanocapillaries were produced by etching ion tracks originating from 100 MeV xenon ions passed through PET polymer foils. The foils were tilted at angles up to 20°, so that the incident ions were forced to interact with the capillary surface. Capillary guiding as the result of ion deflection through charges deposited at the inner wall is found for tilt angles up to 20°. The dependence of this effect on the projectile energy is studied in detail. Using a model describing the guiding effect, the attempt is made to determine the energy dependence of the model parameters.