Charge-state-dependent energy loss of slow ions. I. Experimental results on the transmission of highly charged ions

We report on energy loss measurements of slow (v≪v0), highly charged (Q>10) ions upon transmission through a 1-nm-thick carbon nanomembrane. We emphasize here the scaling of the energy loss with the velocity and charge exchange or loss. We show that a weak linear velocity dependence exists, whereas charge exchange dominates the kinetic energy loss, especially in the case of a large charge capture. A universal scaling of the energy loss with the charge exchange and velocity is found and discussed in this paper. A model for charge-state-dependent energy loss for slow ions is presented in paper II in this series [R. A. Wilhelm and W. Möller, Phys. Rev. A 93, 052709 (2016)].