Parametrization of charge and mass resolution for ΔE − E telescopes

A simple parametrization of energy straggling of 2–200 MeV/nucleon heavy ions traversing thick silicon detectors, based on the Tschalär-Payne theory, is presented. With this parametrization, analytical expressions for the charge and mass resolution of energetic ions detected on ΔE − E telescopes can be obtained. Several consequences that can be extracted from these expressions are analysed, especially, in what concerns the thickness selection for multi-detector telescopes. The validity of those analytical formulae are tested with experimental resolutions obtained from calibration data of three different cosmic-ray telescopes.