Beam current

Typically, PIXE measurements are perfonned in a vacuum of around 10 Pa, although they can be perfonned in air with some limitations. Ion currents needed are typically a few nanoamperes and current is nonnally not a limiting factor in applying the teclmique with a particle accelerator. This beam current also nonnally leads to no significant damage to samples in the process of analysis, offering a non-destmctive analytical method sensitive to trace element concentration levels. 

The source requited for aes is an electron gun similar to that described above for electron microscopy. The most common electron source is thermionic in nature with a W filament which is heated to cause electrons to overcome its work function. The electron flux in these sources is generally proportional to the square of the temperature. Thermionic electron guns are routinely used, because they ate robust and tehable. An alternative choice of electron gun is the field emission source which uses a large electric field to overcome the work function barrier. Field emission sources ate typically of higher brightness than the thermionic sources, because the electron emission is concentrated to the small area of the field emission tip. Focusing in both of these sources is done by electrostatic lenses. Today s thermionic sources typically produce spot sizes on the order of 0.2—0.5 p.m with beam currents of 10 A at 10 keV. If field emission sources ate used, spot sizes down to ca 10—50 nm can be achieved. 

It is usual to define the primary beam current the BSE current /rse, the SE current and the sample current transmitted through the specimen to ground such that the Kirchoff current law holds ... 

These signals can be used to form complementary images. As the beam current is increased, each of these currents will also increase. The backscattered electron yield 11 and the secondary electron yield 8, which refer to the number of backscattered and secondary electrons emitted per incident electron, respectively, are defined by the relationships ... 

Overall a customer needs to know under what circumstances it is best to use either the electron-beam techniques of EDS and WDS or the X-ray technique of XRF for an analysis problem. If both are equally available, the choice usually resides in whether high spatial resolution is needed, as would be obtained only with electron-beam techniques. If liquids are to be analyzed, the only viable choice is XRF. If one s choice is to use electron-beam methods, the further decision between EDS and WDS is usually one of operator preference. That is, to commence study on a totally new sample most electron-beam operators will run an EDS spectrum first. If there are no serious peak overlap problems, then EDS may be sufficient. If there is peak overlap or if maximum sensitivity is desired, then WDS is usually preferred. Factored into all of this must be the beam sensitivity of the sample, since for WDS analysis the beam current required is lO-lOOx greater than for EDS. This is of special concern in the analysis of polymer materials. 

For a simplified case, one can obtain the rate of CL emission, =ft GI /e, where /is a function containing correction parameters of the CL detection system and that takes into account the fact that not all photons generated in the material are emitted due to optical absorption and internal reflection losses q is the radiative recombination efficiency (or internal quantum efficiency) /(, is the electron-beam current and is the electronic charge. This equation indicates that the rate of CL emission is proportional to q, and from the definition of the latter we conclude that in the observed CL intensity one cannot distii pish between radiative and nonradiative processes in a quantitative manner. One should also note that q depends on various factors, such as temperature, the presence of defects, and the... 

For the preceding modes, the discussion implicitly assumed the normal conditions for PIXE analysis (i.e., few mm-diameter beam, approximately constant beam current, and specimen in vacuum), and ignored the crystallographic nature of the specimen. However, some of the most interesting PIXE results have been obtained using other modes. 

With the use of a microbeam, lateral resolution with NRA on the order of several pm is possible. Flowever, because of the small beam currents obtainable with microbeam systems, sensitivity is limited and reactions with relatively large cross sections are most useful. Only a few laboratories perform microbeam measurements. 

The Duoplasmatron (Eig. 3.18). In the Duoplasmatron, gas-discharge ion sources are used for bombardment with oxygen or argon. In dynamic SIMS, especially, the use of O2 ions is common because of the chemical enhancement effect. With a duoplasmatron ion beam currents of several microamps can be generated. The diameter of the beam can be focused down to 0.5 pm. 

The attainable particle current density per solid angle of the beam (ions pm s sr ) is an inherent property of the ion source, the so-called brightness. Because of this, reduction of the beam diameter is effected by reducing the beam current. 

The determination of effective wavelength is of interest here. For each sample of aluminum (of thickness d cm emergent beam current u), an aluminum foil of thickness Ad was placed in the photometer between sample and detector, so that a reduced emergent beam current could be read. The per cent transmittance of the foil, 100f2/fi, was then calculated, and the effective wavelength was read from a plot (e.g., Figure 3-4) calculated from known values of at different wavelengths.12 This calculation is based upon the relationship... 

The apparatus for the PFAM film coating on the slider surface is shown in Fig. 1 (a). The film thickness was measured by the TOF-SIMS as shown in Fig. 1 (b). It used a pulsed primary Ga+ ion beam to impact the surface of the PFAM film with an inset energy of 15 keV, an extractor current of 2 fj,A, beam current of 600 pA, a pulse width of 17.5 ns, and a frequency of 10 kHz, respectively. The positive TOF-SIMS spectra on the slider surface is shown in Fig. 2 where the peaks at m/z 31, 50, 69, 100, and 131 in Fig. 2(a) correspond to the positive secondary ion fragments of CF+, CFj, C2F4, and C3F5, respectively. The peak at m/z 469 apparent in Fig. 2(b) corresponds to the ion C12H7F 15O2H+ which is the characteristic ion of PFAM molecules. Therefore, the positive TOF-SIMS spectra demonstrates the existence of PFAM film [24,25]. The thickness of the PFAM film can be determined... 

Fig. 42 —AES surface survey of elements in the disk substrate surface after polishing. The slurry contains 6 wt % Si02 particles with a diameter of 30 nm, 1 wt % oxidizer and 2 wt % lubricant in Dl water, and pH value of the slurry is 1.8. (a) Elements in the disk surface, (b) deep distribution of the elements. (The contents of elements and their deep distribution in the polished surface were analyzed by using a PHI 680 auger nanoprobe under determining conditions as follows ion beam current of 1 u,A, ion beam voltage of 2 kV, electron beam current of 10 nA, electron beam voltage of 10 kV and scan area of 20 fj.m by 20...

Absorbed dose rate This is the absorbed dose per unit time expressed in grays per unit time (kGy/s or kGy/min). Dose rate (Dr) for an electron accelerator [48] can be written in terms of beam current (I) and irradiation field area (A) as follows ... 

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