The M-shell x-ray production cross section for thorium and uranium have been determined for protons of energy 0.4 - 4.0 MeV, helium ions of energy 0.4 - 6.0 MeV, carbon ions of energy 4.5 - 11.3 MeV and oxygen ions of energy 4.5 - 13.5 MeV. The total cross sections and the cross sections for individual x-ray peaks in the spectrum, consisting of the following transitions Mz (M4-N2, M5-N3, M4-N3), Ma (M5-N6,7), Mb (M4-N6, M5-O3, M4- O2), and Mg (M4-O3, M5-P3, M3-N4, M3-N5), were compared to the theoretical values determined from the PWBA + OBKN and ECUSAR. The theoretical values for the carbon and oxygen ions were also modified to take into account the effects of multiple ionizations of the target atom by the heavier ions. It is shown that the results of the ECUSAR theory tend to provide better agreement with the experimental data.

Incident ¹H⁺ and ⁴He⁺ ions at 0.3-2.6 MeV and ¹⁹F^q⁺ ions at 25, 27 and 35 MeV were used to study the M-shell x-ray production cross sections of Au, Pb, Bi and U. For the incident fluorine ions, projectile charge state dependence of the cross sections were extracted from measurements made with varying target thicknesses ( ~1 to ~300 μg/cm²). The efficiency of the Si(Li) detector was determined by measuring the K-shell x-ray production of various low Z elements and comparing these values to the prediction of the CPSS theory. The experimental results are compared to the prediction of first Born approximation for direct ionization to the continuum and to the OBK of Nikolaev for the electron capture to the K-, L-, M-...shells of the incident ion. Comparison is also made with the ECPSSR theory that accounts for the energy loss, Coulomb deflection, and relativistic effects in the perturbed stationary state theory.