Charge exchange between highly charged ions and 2D materials

The neutralisation of ions due to their interaction with matter deals with fundamental aspects of ion-solid interaction, e.g.: How does the kinetic energy loss depend on the charge exchange? In order to investigate the neutralisation behaviour, classical ion beam foil experiments were performed using ultimately thin 2D materials as target. Because of their low thickness, an ion with a sufficiently high incident charge state does not reach charge equilibrium, which enables the measurement of the non-equilibrium exit charge state distribution. The influence of target material properties on the charge exchange is investigated for 2D materials consisting of graphene, MoS₂ and hBN, which show different band gap energies between 0 and 6 eV, conductance properties (metallic, semi-conducting and insulating) and layer structures.