Redlab-171

TECHNIQUES OFFERED

IBA techniques:

The IBA techniques are analytical techniques which use as a probe an ion to analyze the composition (at different levels: elemental, molecular, spatial, depth…) of a sample through atomic or nuclear reactions.
The particles come from electrostatic accelerators specifically designed for analytical purposes such as the CMAM Cockcroft Walton, Tandem accelerator with a terminal voltage between 0.5 and 5 MV. The possibility offered by the accelerators of defining with high precision and varying with continuity some essential beam parameters, like the energy (at the per thousand), the current (at the percent) and the size (from the mm to hundred nanometres) has made these techniques the preferred ones in many application fields. They deserve mention: Photonics, Biomedicine, Energy, Safety, Archaeometry, Environment, and Electronics. This is a short summary of IBA techniques offered:

• RBS (Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry)
• CHANNELING
• PIXE (Particle Induced X-ray Emission)
• PIGE (Particle Induced Gamma-Ray Emission)
• TIM (Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy)

• ERDA (Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis)
• NRA (Nuclear Reaction Analysis)

The analitical information that these techniques can provide (cumulatively) are many, for example:

The elemental composition of a sample through the analysis of emitted X-ray, or gamma-ray, or backscattered particles energy spectra.

The depth profile of elements through the change of beam energy (and its penetration depth) or the variation of beam-sample geometry.

The structural composition of a crystal sample through channeling.

Each of the above techniques gives its specific contribution to the knowledge of the sample and many of them can be performed simultaneously during the same sample irradiation.

AVAILABLE FACILITIES

Accelerator:

TThe main facility of our center is a 5MV terminal voltage tandem accelerator. It was designed and constructed by High Voltage Engineering Europe (HVEE) as the first Coaxial High Current Tandetron Accelerator of 5MV using the Cockroft-Walton power supply system (previously, terminal voltages were never higher than 3 MV with this system and the power supply itself was perpendicular to the acceleration stage).
This novel design guarantees a more reliable operation, low ripple and high stability at a terminal voltage of 5 MV, allowing for a better energy ion determination and, therefore, higher confidence in experimental results.
This type of accelerator is the best suited for Ion Beam Analysis techniques applied to Materials Science, Archaeometry, Environmental Science, etc.., but also Positron Emission Tomography(PET), deep-level light-ion implants in semiconductors, or accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) of various elements.

Beamlines:

Since the installation of the 5MV accelerator delivered with a factory ready multipurpose extension line, CMAM has undertaken the development activity necessary to support new research projects and experiments. Some extension beam lines have been conceived and constructed and a few more are presently under development. Four beamlines are routinely available to users offering them a range of different techniques to explore and understand the properties of the physical systems:

• The Standard multiporpose line (STD)
• The External Microbeam line (EuB)
• The ERDA-TOF line (ToF)
• The Nuclear physics line (NUC)
• The implantation line (IMP)
• The Internal Microbeam line (IuB)

The users can rely on installations that, by the kind of beams and instruments available and their performances (e.g. space, time, angle, energy resolution, current, fluence, etc.) allow to deal with many research topics. These are like the production and characterisation of materials at the technological edge like materials for photonics and the electronic industry; the controlled implantation of ions to modify materials properties; the high sensitivity non destructive analysis of fine arts objects and environmental samples. A few more lines, actually under development will soon extend the range of materials and the range of conditions under which they could be modified and/or analysed: