Alpha particles and Teflon

Northprairieman

Hi there,

I know that alpha particles will pass through gold foil if it is thin enough, but will alpha particles pass through a layer of teflon? If so, is there some way of knowing how thin the teflon should be for most alpha particles to pass through?

Bob S

See discussion on alpha particle range and numbers in

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=438781

Bob S

Northprairieman

Thanks! What about protons? Do you know how much of a material protons pass through?

Bob S

Here is a pay-per-view paper. You can find other papers by Googling proton range energy tables (or plots)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...e&searchtype=a

Here is the Lawrence Berkeley Lab Particle Data Group reference on Passage of Particles through Matter

http://pdg.lbl.gov/2009/reviews/rpp2...les-matter.pdf

THis includes the equation for the Bethe-Bloch dE/dx ionization energy loss. You will need to do a numerical integration to get proton range.

There was a very old and complete set of proton range-energy plots, UCRL-2426, but I have not seen a copy for ~50 years.

There are also programs such as GEANT4, available at http://geant4.cern.ch/

Bob S

Northprairieman

Thank you. That is very thorough.