Ion beam analysis techniques

Abstract

The international community introduced Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) in the 1950's, principally as an analytical technique for the characterisation of solid materials. Spectacular growth occurred in the subsequent three decades which was made possible by the increasing availability of Van de Graff type accelerators, and the development of semiconductor detector technologies. The demonstrated capabilities of speed, versatility sensitivity and the non-destructive nature of IBA resulted in ion beams being applied to solve problems in many diverse fields such as materials science, biology, geology, medicine and the environment. Whilst much of the low energy and light ion beam techniques are now mature, development of novel instrumentation and techniques using high energy and heavy ion beams is currently a developing field.