By use of classical mechanics, Bohr developed an equation of stopping power, -dE/dx, given as the product of a kinematic factor and a stopping number.

The kinematic factor includes such terms as the electronic charge and mass, the number of atoms per cubic centimetre of the medium, and the velocity of the incident charged particle. The stopping number includes the atomic number and the natural logarithm of a term that includes the velocity of the incident particle as well as its charge, a typical transition energy in the system (see Figure 1; a crude estimate is adequate because the quantity appears within the logarithm), and Planck’s constant, h. Bohr’s stopping-power formula does not require knowledge of the details of atomic binding. In terms of the stopping number, B, the full expression for stopping power is given by -dE/dx = (4πZ₁²e⁴N/mv²)B, where Z₁ is the atomic number of the penetrating particle and N is the atomic density of the medium (in atoms/volume).

For a heavy incident charged particle in the nonrelativistic range (e.g., an alpha particle, a helium nucleus with two positive charges), the stopping number B, according to the German-born American physicist Hans Bethe, is given by quantum mechanics as equal to the atomic number (Z) of the absorbing medium times the natural logarithm (ln) of two times the electronic mass times the velocity squared of the particle, divided by a mean excitation potential (I) of the atom; i.e., B = Z ln (2mv²/I).

Bethe’s stopping number for a heavy particle may be modified by including corrections for particle speed in the relativistic range (β² + ln [1 - β²]), in which the Greek letter beta, β, represents the velocity of the particle divided by the velocity of light, and polarization screening (i.e., reduction of interaction force by intervening charges, represented by the symbol δ/2), as well as an atomic-shell correction (represented by the ratio of a constant C to the atomic number of the medium); i.e., B = Z (ln 2mv²/I - β² - ln[1 - β²] - C/Z - δ/2).

The most important nontrivial quantity in the equation for stopping number is the mean excitation potential, I. Experimental values of this parameter, or quantity, are known for most atoms, but no single theory gives it over the whole range of atomic numbers because the calculation would require knowledge of the ground states and all excited states. Statistical models of the atom, however, come close to providing a theory. Calculations by the American physicist Felix Bloch in 1933 showed that the mean excitation potential in electron volts is about 14 times the atomic number of the element through which the charged particle is passing (I = 14Z). A later calculation gives the ratio of the potential to atomic number as equal to a constant (a) plus another constant (b) times the atomic number raised to the -2/3 power in which a = 9.2 and b = 4.5—i.e., I/Z = a + bZ^-2/3. This formula is widely applicable. Other exact quantum-mechanical calculations for hydrogen give its mean excitation potential as equal to 15 eV.

Even though the basic stopping-power theory has been developed for atoms, it is readily applied to molecules by virtue of Bragg’s rule (named for the British physicist William H. Bragg), which states that the stopping number of a molecule is the sum of the stopping numbers of all the atoms composing the molecule. For most molecules Bragg’s rule applies impressively within a few percent, though hydrogen (H₂) and nitrous oxide (NO) are notable exceptions. The rule implies: (1) similarity of atomic binding in different molecules having one common atom or more, and (2) that the vacuum ultraviolet transitions, in which most electronic transitions are concentrated under such irradiation, involve energy losses much higher than the strengths of most chemical bonds.

The charge on a heavy positive ion fluctuates during penetration of a medium. In the beginning it captures an electron, which it quickly loses. As it slows down, however, the cross section of electron loss decreases relative to that for capture. Basically, the impinging ion undergoes charge-exchange cycles involving a single capture followed by a single loss. Ultimately, an electron is permanently bound when it becomes energetically impossible for the ion to lose it. A second charge-exchange cycle then occurs. This phenomenon continues repeatedly until the velocity of the heavy ion approximates the orbital velocity of the electron in Bohr’s theory of the atom, when the ion spends part of its time as singly charged and another part as a neutral atom. The kinematic factor in the expression for stopping power is proportional to the square of the nuclear charge of the penetrating particle, and it is modified to account for electron capture as the particle slows down. On slowing down further, the electronic energy-loss mechanism becomes ineffective, and energy loss by elastic scattering dominates. The mathematical expressions presented here apply strictly in the high-velocity, electronic excitation domain.