The stopping power and straggling of backscattered protons on nanometric Pt films were measured at low to medium energies (60–250 keV) by using the medium-energy ion scattering technique. The stopping power results are in good agreement with the most recent measurements by Primetzhofer Phys. Rev. B 86, 094102 (2012) and are well described by the free electron gas model at low projectile energies. Nevertheless, the straggling results are strongly underestimated by well-established formulas up to a factor of two. Alternatively, we propose a model for the energy-loss straggling that takes into account the inhomogeneous electron-gas response, based on the electron-loss function of the material, along with bunching effects. This approach yields remarkable agreement with the experimental data, indicating that the observed enhancement in energy-loss straggling is due to bunching effects in an inhomogeneous electron system. Nonlinear effects are of minor importance for the energy-loss straggling.

• Received 9 June 2020
• Revised 29 July 2020
• Accepted 7 August 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.102.032812