Narrow Results

Ion microbeam technology and its applications at the TIARA facility of JAEA Takasaki were summarized. In 1990, R&D of microbeam technology for TIARA was initiated in order to use an ion beam for analysis, radiation effect studies, or fabrication by the micro or nanometer scale. Three different types of ion microbeam systems with high-spatial resolutions were constructed and techniques of micro-PIXE, single ion hit and particle beam writing (PBW) were developed and applied widely in science and technology. Superior performance of these microbeams, on the other hand, was based on the highest quality of beams from the accelerators, the cyclotron in particular, which were also an important part of the R&D at TIARA.

Performance of a micro WDX-PIXE system that consists of position sensitive x-ray spectrometer and the heavy ion microbeam line is described. The influence of the position resolution of the position sensitive proportional counter (PSPC) used in the spectrometer on system energy resolution is discussed based on the measured values for C and O K x-rays. The system has successfully been used for chemical state analysis of various compound materials and small area of the materials (< 3 × 10^-3mm²) can be analyzed.