Materials Analysis Using Fast Ions

Abstract

At the Ionenstrahllabor a great variety of ions with variable energies up to several MeV/u can be produced. Performing proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE) with protons of 68 MeV, heavy elements can be detected via the K X-rays in addition to their L X-rays. The large proton range and the small absorption coefficients for the K X-rays result in an analyzable depth of several millimeters. The L to K line intensity ratio yields further information on the composition of the objects. Examples of measurements on archaeological and art historical objects will be shown. The use of heavy ion elastic recoil detection analysis (HI-ERDA) allows the determination of the distribution of all elements in materials up to a depth of several micrometers. Especially the measurement of the hydrogen concentration is possible with high sensitivity. The experimental setup and measurements on solar cell materials will be presented.