On Problems of Resolving Power in Rutherford Backscattering

Abstract

The Rutherford backscattering technique has found increasing applications in the analysis of surface layers. At high energies — above 1 MeV for example — the resolving power of the detectorsystem is usually small compared to the incident energy. At lower energies, between 50 and 300 keV, however, this need not be the case. Since interpretations of spectra depend on the relative resolving power it is important both to determine the latter for a given system, and to examine in detail the influence on the spectra.