Scaling laws for guiding of highly charged ions through nanocapillaries in an insulating polymer

Abstract

Guided transmission of highly charged ions through nanocapillaries in insulating PET polymers was investigated. Samples with highly parallel capillaries were used to study the ion guiding with a variety of ionic species, such as ${\text{Ne}}^{7+}$, ${\text{Ne}}^{9+}$, ${\text{Ar}}^{9+}$, ${\text{Ar}}^{13+}$, and ${\text{Xe}}^{25+}$. The incident energy was varied within the range of $3\ensuremath{-}40$ keV. The fraction of transmitted ions was measured as a function of the capillary tilt angle. The results are used to evaluate the guiding angle, which is a measure of the guiding power specifying the ability of a material to guide ions. Moreover, the angular profile of the transmitted ions was studied as a function of their energy and charge state. The profile width and the guiding angle were found to follow the same scaling law indicating that they are both determined by the main charge patch in the entrance region of the capillary.