Energetic elements

H5. Exposure of Earth life or human assets on Earth to toxic, radioactive, or energetic elements of the mission hardware [Al]... 

To get a relative measure of element importance, the element activity is compared to a quantity that represents the overall activity of the system. This quantity is called total activity and is defined as the sum of all the energetic element activities of the system, i.e.. 

The contribution of a modulating signal can be evaluated if the modulated energetic element can be divided into modulated and non-modulated elements, the total effect of which is the same as the original element. The signal can be eliminated if the modulated elements have low relative activity, in which case the primary contribution of the element was from the non-modulated portion. Three possible approaches to element division are [25] as follows ... 

A microbe employs a focused beams of energetic ions, to provide infomiation on the spatial distribution of elements at concentration levels that range from major elements to a few parts per million [27]. The range of teclmiques available that allowed depth infomiation plus elemental composition to be obtained could all be used in exactly the same way it simply became possible to obtain lateral infomiation simultaneously. 

If a sample solution is introduced into the center of the plasma, the constituent molecules are bombarded by the energetic atoms, ions, electrons, and even photons from the plasma itself. Under these vigorous conditions, sample molecules are both ionized and fragmented repeatedly until only their constituent elemental atoms or ions survive. The ions are drawn off into a mass analyzer for measurement of abundances and mJz values. Plasma torches provide a powerful method for introducing and ionizing a wide range of sample types into a mass spectrometer (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, ICP/MS). 

If a sample is introduced as a solution into the middle of the start of the flame, the combination of high temperatures, energetic electrons, and ions breaks down the sample molecules into constituent atoms and their ions. These elemental ions and atoms emerge from the end of the flame. 

A discharge ignited in argon and coupled inductively to an external high-frequency electromagnetic field produces a plasma of ions, neutrals, and electrons with a temperature of about 7000 to 10,000°C. Samples introduced into the plasma under these extremely energetic conditions are fragmented into atoms and ions of their constituent elements. These ions are examined by a mass analyzer, frequently a quadrupole instrument. 

Once inside the hot plasma, which is at a temperature of about 8000 K and contains large numbers of energetic electrons and ions, the sample molecules are broken down into their constituent elements, which appear as ions. The ions are transported into a mass analyzer such as a quadrupole or a time-of-flight instrument for measurement of m/z values and ion abundances. 

Xps requires a source that can provide a single x-ray line reasonably narrow in energy. The absolute energy requirement for this x-ray line is that it must be energetic enough to generate photoelectrons from core levels of a majority of the elements with reasonable resolution. Of the many possible x-ray sources, those which best meet this requirement are the A1 x-ray line at 1486.6 eV and the Mg x-ray line at 1253.6 eV. These lines have... 

J. F. Ziegler, Handbook of Stopping Cross-Sectionsfor Energetic Ions in A.U Elements., Pergamon Press, New York, 1980. 

Sulfur combines direcdy and usually energetically with almost all of the elements. Exceptions include gold, platinum, iridium, and the hehum-group gases (19). In the presence of oxygen or dry air, sulfur is very slowly oxidized to sulfur dioxide. When burned in air, it forms predominantly sulfur dioxide with small amounts of sulfur trioxide. When burned in the presence of moist air, sulfurous acid and sulfuric acids are slowly generated. 

Nonmetal haUdes are generally hydroly2ed to a hydrogen haUde and to an oxy-acid containing the other element. The first row nonmetal haUdes, eg, CCI4, resist hydrolysis because the nonmetal element cannot expand its octet of electrons to form a bond to water before its bond to the haUde is broken. Hydrolysis requires either an energetic water molecule to strike the haUde or ioni2ation of the covalent nonmetal—halide bond, processes that tend to be quite slow (16). 

Electron Probe X-Ray Microanalysis (EPMA) is a spatially resolved, quantitative elemental analysis technique based on the generation of characteristic X rays by a focused beam of energetic electrons. EPMA is used to measure the concentrations of elements (beryllium to the actinides) at levels as low as 100 parts per million (ppm) and to determine lateral distributions by mapping. The modern EPMA instrument consists of several key components ... 

Static SIMS entails the bombardment of a sample surface with an energetic beam of particles, resulting in the emission of surface atoms and clusters. These ejected species subsequendy become either positively or negatively charged and are referred to as secondary ions. The secondary ions are the actual analytical signal in SIMS. A mass spectrometer is used to separate the secondary ions with respect to their charge-to-mass ratios. The atomic ions give an elemental identification (see... 

The atom flux sputtered from a solid surface under energetic ion bombardment provides a representative sampling of the solid. Sputtered neutral mass spectrometry has been developed as method to quantitatively measure the composition of this atom flux and thus the composition of the sputtered material. The measurement of ionized sputtered neutrals has been a significant improvement over the use of sputtered ions as a measure of flux composition (the process called SIMS), since sputtered ion yields are seriously affected by matrix composition. Neutral panicles are ionized by a separate process after sputter atomization, and SNMS quantitation is thus independent of the matrix. Also, since the sputtering and ionization processes are separate, an ionization process can be selected that provides relatively uniform yields for essentially all elements. 

The spark source is an energetic ionization process, producing a rich spectrum of multiply charged species (Af/2, Af/3, Af/4, etc.). These masses, falling at halves, thirds, and fourths of the unit mass separation can aid in the positive identification of elements. In Figure 2, species like Au and are labeled. The most abundant... 

The chemical and electronic properties of elements at the interfaces between very thin films and bulk substrates are important in several technological areas, particularly microelectronics, sensors, catalysis, metal protection, and solar cells. To study conditions at an interface, depth profiling by ion bombardment is inadvisable, because both composition and chemical state can be altered by interaction with energetic positive ions. The normal procedure is, therefore, to start with a clean or other well-characterized substrate and deposit the thin film on to it slowly at a chosen temperature while XPS is used to monitor the composition and chemical state by recording selected characteristic spectra. The procedure continues until no further spectral changes occur, as a function of film thickness, of time elapsed since deposition, or of changes in substrate temperature. 

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