Theory of damage production in thin targets by fast particles of low charge

The theoretical description of radiation damage caused by MeV protons, deuterons, and α-particles in thin targets is revised with special emphasis on the reduction in damage production because of inelastic energy losses by recoiling target atoms. Corrections due to threshold effects and deviations from Rutherford scattering are also discussed. The expected damage is less (by up to a factor of two) than predicted by the Seitz theory and has a different energy dependence. A reasonable fit to various experimental results is obtained.