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We have constructed a time-of-flight spectrometer which employs cylindrically symmetric elements to measure the velocity of slow heavy ions. Emphasis is placed n the efficiency of the microchannel plate detectors, and a detailed discussion of the absolute time calibration is given. The system has been used to measure energy losses for heavy ions and a comparison is made of the results with those obtained with a silicon detector.

We report on extensive measurements to determine the target thickness dependence of heavy ion energy loss, ( d E d χ ), for the Ne → C system. For ions transmitted with zero net deflection at velocities 0.75 ≤ υ υ 0 ≤ 1.05 , a significant dependence of d E d χ on foil thickness has been observed which, parametrized through the Meyer-Klein-Wedell theory, identifies an inelastic component in the energy loss for scattered particles. A discussion is given of some of the precautions that have proved necessary in applying time-of-flight techniques to these energy loss measurements.