An analytic solution for energy loss and time-of-flight calculations for intermediate-energy light ions

Particle identification in intermediate heavy-ion collisions, using a modern 4π detector which contains several active layers, relies on a parametrisation or numerical integration of the energy loss in thick layers of detector material for different ions. Here an analytical solution applicable over an energy range of a few MeV up to a 100A MeV and for ions up to at least Z=8 is presented. Also, the consequences for time-of-flight measurements (TOF) in detectors behind several thick layers of detector material are discussed. The solution is applied to the data of the Huygens detector, which uses a TPC (dE/dx) and plastic scintillators for particle identification (E and TOF or dE/dx and TOF).