Title: thin target
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - thin target
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.09391
Status: current

Definition
In energetic-ion analysis and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, sample whose thickness is sufficiently small that the variation in energy of particles backscattered from atoms of each constitutive element is small with respect to the system resolution.

Related Terms
- Rutherford backscattering spectrometry: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09178
- system resolution: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09389

Source
- PAC, 2020, 92, 1781. 'Glossary of methods and terms used in surface chemical analysis (IUPAC Recommendations 2020)' on page 1837 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0404)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09391/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09391/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09391/xml

Citation: Citation: 'thin target' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.09391
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-18T10:21:07+00:00