Nanoscale characterization of ion tracks: MC simulations versus analytical approach

The goal of this work was to investigate the agreement of physical parameters related to the particle track structure on the nanometer scale, obtained by means of a detailed track structure simulation (PTra) as well as by a rapid analytical approach. Parameters describing the tracks of secondary electrons produced by 0.3 MeV/u C6+-ions were of particular interest as those particles are densely ionizing. For this purpose, the target volume in form of a nanometric water cylinder was positioned at different radial distances from the ion trajectory and track structure parameters were determined as function of the radial distance. While the fluence of electrons through the target surface and the mean ionization cluster size obtained by both approaches were in good agreement, the probabilities of specific cluster sizes (one, two and three) turned out to be rather different in the two approaches.