Extrapolation of the Bethe equation for electron stopping powers to intermediate and low electron energies by empirical simulation of target effective mean excitation energy and atomic number

A series of simple stopping power (SP) formulas, modified from the relativistic Bethe equation, is presented that is based on the concepts of target effective atomic number and mean excitation energy (MEE). The analytical model function is constructed to approximate experimental or calculated SPs at low electron energies and tend asymptotically to the relativistic Bethe function at high energies. The energy dependencies of our effective values, in contrast with theoretical approaches, are defined empirically by parametrization with tuning parameters. A least-squares fitting routine based on the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was developed. We utilize the material parameters and numerical calculations of SPs from optical data using the full Penn-algorithm. Our formula is thought to be applicable for energies above 60 eV. Our simulations of SPs for 41 elemental solids are found to be in good agreement with published numerical results. The flexibility of a general empirical formula is shown. Shortened formulas were developed that are applicable for particular energy ranges, and effective MEEs are proposed that differ from previously recommended values. The presented formulas may be used for analytical calculation of SPs over a broad projectile energy region.