APDAS - applied physics division analytical services: accelerator based techniques

Abstract

APDAS (Applied Physics Division Analytical Services) is a service supplied by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, a government-funded body committed to building and maintaining strong links with industry by providing scientific and technical goods and services wherever possible. Because of its background and achievements in high-tech research, APDAS can provide solutions to many of the problems that arise in Australian industries. One of the facilities available to APDAS is a positive ion particle accelerator. This enables any positive ion in a gaseous medium to be accelerated to energies ranging from a few hundred thousand to three million electron volts for single charge states. The accelerated ions strike a target causing nuclear reactions which allow several types of analyses including elemental analysis to be performed. In this APDAS facility, ion beams can be steady-state or pulsed with pulse durations as low as three nanoseconds. Target preparation and fully automated data recording are also available.