A simple analytical model for ion-solid interactions, suitable for low energy beam depositions, is reported. An approximation for the nuclear stopping power is used to obtain the analytic solution for the deposited energy in the solid. The ratio of the deposited energy in the bulk to the energy deposited in the surface yields a ceiling for the beam energy above which more defects are generated in the bulk resulting in defective films. The numerical evaluations agree with the existing results in the literature. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.