Proton elastic scattering differential cross-sections for 12C

Carbon depth profiling presents a strong analytical challenge for all the major ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques, with elastic backscattering spectroscopy (EBS) being widely implemented. In the past, the 12C(p,p)12C reaction has been successfully evaluated for proton beam energies up to 4.5 MeV. Currently, an attempt is being made to extend this evaluation to higher energies, namely up to Ep,lab = 7 MeV. There is a certain lack of available and/or coherent datasets in literature for these relatively high proton beam energies at backward angles, suitable for IBA. Moreover, the few existing datasets are in certain cases discrepant. Thus, in the present work, the differential cross-section of proton elastic scattering on carbon were measured between 140°and 170°, in steps of 10°, for the proton beam energy range between 2.7 and 7 MeV. The experimental results obtained, along with data from literature, were evaluated applying nuclear physics models. The evaluated results were benchmarked using a thick, mirror polished glassy carbon target at different beam energies and detector angles.