New experimental stopping power data of 4He, 16O, 40Ar, 48Ca and 84Kr projectiles in different solid materials

New experimental data on energy loss of 4He, 16O, 40Ar, 48Ca and 84Kr ions in thin, self-supporting foils of C, Al, Ni, Ag, Lu, Au, Pb and Th are presented. The measurements, using the TOF-E method, were done in a very broad energy range around the stopping power maximum; typically from 0.1 to 11 MeV/u. When available, the extracted stopping power values are compared with the previously published data. The overall agreement is good although a fair comparison is difficult as the covered energy range is much larger than in previous measurements. The small error bars and a broad coverage allowed us to test the predictions of theoretical codes: PASS, CasP, and semi-empirical programs: SRIM, LET, MSTAR, and the Hubert table predictions. The deviations of PASS predictions from the experimental data do not exceed 20% for all the measured combinations. CasP predictions are within 15% from the data for heavier ions but diverge up to 40% for lighter ions. Semi-empirical approaches, including SRIM, deviate from the experimental data by less than 5% for the regions already covered by previous experiments but err by about 10-20% for the ion/target combinations that were not measured before: Ca in Lu as well as Kr in Lu, Pb, and Th.