The Microanalysis of Materials Unit works at the Center for Microanalysis of Materials (CMAM), a multidisciplinary scientific facility belonging to the Autonomous University of Madrid. The CMAM has a modern electrostatic ion accelerator that provides standard and advanced techniques with ion beams, enabling the analysis and/or modification of the composition and structure of materials.
Available services
- MULTIPURPOSE LINE: It allows compositional and structural characterization (concentration profiles) and modification of materials.
Main areas of application: Materials science, thin film, ion implantation, etc.
Available techniques: RBS, ERDA, NRA, PIXE, IBMM, PIGE and channelling.
- EXTERNAL MICROBEAM LINE:Its 30 µm-diameter beam can be used to characterize the composition and structure of materials without a vacuum, and the modification of materials in air.
Main areas of application: Art and archaeometry, modification of materials.
Available techniques: RBS, PIXE, IBMM y PIGE.
- NUCLEAR PHYSICS LINE (in cooperation with the Institute for the Structure of Matter, CSIC).
Main areas of application: Nuclear Physics, efficient reaction cross sections measurements, etc.
Applications
The ion beam analysis techniques can be used to characterize the elemental composition of samples, from their surface to a few micrometres in depth, without destroying or eroding the analyzed sample, in such areas as:
- Materials science
- Surface physics and thin films
- Microelectronics
- Optoelectronics
- Magnetism
- Nanotechnology
- Modification of materials
- Radiation Damage
- Nuclear physics
- Environmen
- Biomedicine
- Biology
- Archaeometry and artistic heritage
Equipment
The main equipment is a 5 MV tandem electrostatic accelerator. It was designed and built by High Voltage Engineering Europe (HVEE). This was the first coaxial high current Tandetron accelerator capable of reaching 5 MV. This is achieved by using a Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier (so far, the maximum voltage in this method had been 3 MV, with the power supply perpendicular to the acceleration column).
The supply system guarantees reliable operation and high stability at terminal voltage with minimum ripple (less than 50 V to 5 MV), which allows a better determination of the ion energy, and therefore increased quality in experimental results. This type of accelerator is the most adequate not only for ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques applied to Materials Science, Archaeometry, Environmental Science, etc., but also for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) or element implantation at intermediate energies (dozens of MeV).
