Energy Loss Function of Solids Assessed by Ion Beam Energy-Loss Measurements: Practical Application to Ta₂O₅

We present a study where the energy loss function of Ta₂O₅, initially derived in the optical limit for a limited region of excitation energies from reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy (REELS) measurements, was improved and extended to the whole momentum and energy excitation region through a suitable theoretical analysis using the Mermin dielectric function and requiring the fulfillment of physically motivated restrictions, such as the f- and KK-sum rules. The material stopping cross section (SCS) and energy-loss straggling measured for 300-2000 keV proton and 200-6000 keV helium ion beams by means of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) were compared to the same quantities calculated in the dielectric framework, showing an excellent agreement, which is used to judge the reliability of the Ta₂O₅ energy loss function. Based on this assessment, we have also predicted the inelastic mean free path and the SCS of energetic electrons in Ta₂O₅.