Deep Penetration of Charged Particles in Biological Samples

Experimental evidence of abnormally deep penetration in some botanical targets by low-energy ion beams is presented. The energy spectra of 818 keV He+ ions penetrating a 70 µm thick seed coat of maize, fruit peel of grape and of tomato all have a common feature. The leading edges of these broad spectra indicate that some of the penetrating ions pass through the thick targets easily and only lose a small fraction of their initial incident energy. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and electron microprobe measurements are used to determine the argon concentration in multilayer samples of the seed coat of maize implanted by 200 keV Ar+ ions. The results show that about 10% of the Ar+ ions can penetrate deeper than ~100 µm in these samples.