Nuclear Methods MeVIon Beam Analysis

The main techniques traditionally used in MeV Ion Beam Analysis are Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE), Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) and Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA), which, broadly speaking, utilize light (m <4) ions. These techniques can also be applied in the channeling mode to study the structural properties of crystalline materials (such as foreign atom location, radiation damage, and interface studies). The techniques have the common feature that all are based on processes that occur spontaneously in the interaction of light ion beams with solids. Since these processes are well understood and are very well established in the literature [1-3], this review will treat them only with regard to improvements in their quantification (sec. 3). Heavy ion beams in solids exhibit additional properties that can be utilized in materials. For example, they transfer large amounts of energy in collision with other nuclei; they slow down rapidly and in doing so generate regions of very high ionization density. Analytical methods based on the generation of fast recoils, on the nuclear physics process of coulomb excitation and on the heavy ion induced desorption of atoms and molecules are under development and are described in section 2. Both the light and heavy ion techniques can be applied either in the broad beam or microbeam mode. New developments are taking place in the production and focusing of micrometer size beams for analysis where lateral resolution is important. These advances, which could revolutionize the prospects for microbeam systems, are described in section 4. 2. Advanced Analysis Techniques