ERDA (Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis)

Elastic Recoil detection analysis relies on the detection of nuclei recoling from the sample after being impacted by incoming beam ions. Recoil energies depend on the mass of the species and the depth inside the sample. Therefore ERDA provides depth-resolved compositional analysis. ERDA is complementary to RBS, as it works very well for detection of light species in a heavier atom substrate (just the opposite from RBS).

At CMAM ERDA is used with a He (or heavier) ion beam and a foil placed in front of the detector for hydrogen and deuterium depth profiling, and also with the time-of-flight option, allowing for simultaneous depth profiling of several different elements without any ambiguity, including isotopic resolution for light elements.