IBA Techniques
Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques use ion beams as a probe to analyze the composition (at different levels: elemental, molecular, spatial, depth…) of a sample through atomic or nuclear interactions.
The ion beam is obtained from a suitable accelerator, such as the one at CMAM, which is of tandem with a maximum terminal voltage of 5 MV. Beam parameters (energy, current, footprint) can be varied flexibly depending on the experiment, making these techniques very useful in many application fields. Some examples are: Photonics, Biomedicine, Energy, Archaeometry, Environment, and Electronics.
Some examples of the analytical information that these techniques may provide are as follows:
Elemental composition of a sample through the analysis of emitted X-ray, or gamma-ray (PIXE or PIGE respectively)
Compositional depth profile of elements present in the sample via elastic nuclear collisions (RBS or ERD)
Compositional information about specific elements/isotopes by spectroscopic analysis of the products of a suitable nuclear reaction (NRA)
Structural information of a single crystal sample by studying the yield of one of the techniques mentioned above as a function of the relative orientation between the incoming beam and crystal principal orientations (channeling)
Each of the above techniques gives its specific contribution to the knowledge of the sample and more than one can be performed simultaneously.
Further details about ion beam analysis techniques may be obtained at suitable websites (such as Ion beam analysis techniques | ANSTO) or textbooks. A very simplified summary with key figures can be consulted in the links below for the main techniques available at CMAM: