Space plasma instruments often rely on ultrathin carbon foils for incident ion detection, time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry, and ionization of energetic neutral atoms. Angular scattering and energy loss of ions or neutral atoms in the foil can degrade instrument performance, including sensitivity and mass resolution; thus, there is an ongoing effort to manufacture thinner foils. Using new 3-layer graphene foils manufactured at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, we demonstrate that these are the thinnest foils reported to date and discuss future testing required for application in space instrumentation. We characterize the angular scattering distribution for 3-30 keV protons through the foils, which is used as a proxy for the foil thickness. We show that these foils are ∼2.5-4.5 times thinner than the state-of-the-art carbon foils and ∼1.6 times thinner than other graphene foils described in the literature. We find that the inverse relationship between angular scattering and energy no longer holds, reaffirming that this may indicate a new domain of beam-foil interactions for ultrathin (few-layer) graphene foils.

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质子通过超薄石墨烯箔的角散射：飞行时间仪器的应用

空间等离子体仪器通常依靠超薄碳箔进行入射离子检测、飞行时间 (TOF) 质谱分析和高能中性原子的电离。箔中离子或中性原子的角散射和能量损失会降低仪器性能，包括灵敏度和质量分辨率；因此，人们一直在努力制造更薄的箔片。我们使用洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室制造的新型 3 层石墨烯箔，证明这是迄今为止报道的最薄的箔，并讨论了在空间仪器中应用所需的未来测试。我们通过箔表征 3-30 keV 质子的角散射分布，用作箔厚度的代理。我们表明，这些箔比最先进的碳箔薄约 2.5-4.5 倍，比最先进的碳箔薄约 1.5 倍。比文献中描述的其他石墨烯箔薄 6 倍。我们发现角散射和能量之间的反比关系不再成立，重申这可能表明超薄（几层）石墨烯箔的梁-箔相互作用的新领域。