On the correlation between nuclear and electronic stopping of heavy ions in light targets

Interatomic potentials for Au–C system, calculated with density-functional theory (DFT) method, have been used to obtain the range parameters of gold in carbon at energies of about 1–1000 keV and for the inverse implantation of carbon in gold between 5 and 40 keV. The range parameters have been evaluated by the standard transport theory and by Monte–Carlo simulations. Good agreement between the computed range parameters and available experimental data does not confirm the existence of correlation effects between the nuclear and electronic stopping in the studied interval of energies.