Multivariate analysis method for energy calibration and improved mass assignment in recoil spectrometry

Heavy ion recoil spectrometry is rapidly becoming a well established analysis method, but the associated data analysis processing is still not well developed. The pronounced nonlinear response of silicon detectors for heavy ions leads to serious limitation and complication in mass gating, which is the principal factor in obtaining energy spectra with minimal cross talk between elements. To overcome the above limitation, a simple empirical formula with an associated multiple regression method is proposed for the absolute energy calibration of the time of flight-energy dispersive detector telescope used in recoil spectrometry. A radical improvement in mass assignment was realized, which allows a more accurate and improved depth profiling with the important feature of making the data processing much easier. ((orig.))