Interactions of slow H, H₂, and H₃ with thin carbon foils

Interaction processes resulting from the transit of incident 2-30 keV H⁺, H⁺₂ and H⁺₃ through 1.2 to 2.5 μg cm^-2 carbon foils are investigated by examining the charge state and angular scatter distributions of atomic and molecular species that exit the foils. A comparison of the scatter distributions of exiting H⁺₂ and H⁰ from incident H⁺₂ and H⁺₃ show that the atomic components of transmitted molecules scatter independently from foil atoms. For a given foil thickness, the measured fractions of H⁺₂ from incident H⁺₂ and H⁺₃ are inversely proportional to the square of the angular scatter half-width.