Areal density effects on the blocking of 3-keV Ne7+ ions guided through nanocapillaries in polymers

We studied blocking effects on ion guiding through nanocapillaries in highly insulating polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The experiments were initiated in view of a previous study with capillaries in polycarbonate (PC) for which strong blocking effects were observed, whereas for PET these effects could not be detected. The aim was to find out whether the different results are caused by differences in the PET and PC materials or by differences in the areal densities of the capillaries. Transmission experiments of 3-keV Ne7+ ions were performed for a variety of PET samples with an areal capillary density ranging from 3 to 60 x 10(6) cm (2). The tilt angles were close to zero degree because previous blocking effects were found to be largest at small angles. Our results clearly show that blocking effects also exist for PET and that they are sensitively dependent on the areal capillary density, i.e., the mean capillary distance. The potential produced by the charges accumulated in neighboring capillaries is calculated showing that it plays an important role in the ion blocking. In addition, model calculations are performed providing expressions to determine the direct ion transmission for small tilt angles and divergent ion beams.