Ion Beam Materials Science Laboratory

Facility Description

The Ion Beam Materials Laboratory (IBML) provides a cutting edge instrumentation and expertise for materials research using energetic ion beams. Current capabilities are centered on three thrust areas: near surface analysis of materials (up to ~10 microns below the surface) with ion beam analysis techniques; new materials synthesis and modification through ion implantation; and radiation effects in materials. A variety of ion beam analysis techniques, such as Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), elastic recoil detection (ERD), and particle-induced x-ray emission (PIXE), are available on the Tandem accelerator. Unique instrumentation includes a nuclear microprobe with high beam currents in spot sizes no more than 10 micrometers in diameter. The tandem is also a high-energy implanter for low-dose experiments. High-dose implants on the ion implanter can be carried out at temperatures ranging from LN₂ to 1100°C.

Uses of the Ion Beam Materials Laboratory include the following:

• Novel materials synthesis using ion implantation and chemical doping;
• Surface property enhancement of structural materials (corrosion, friction, and wear etc.) through ion beam treatment;
• Radiation effects in materials relevant to nuclear energy applications;
• Radiolysis in gases, liquids, and polymeric materials;
• Compositional analysis and depth profiling of solid samples up to 10 micrometers below the surface, as well as studies of interface diffusion;
• Determination of the crystallinity of thin films and defect/damage analysis in single crystals by ion channeling; and
• High-sensitivity elemental analysis (up to ~ppm) of samples a few 10s micrometers in diameter using proton-induced x-ray emission;

The user community is organized around the concept of the participating research team. Each team is responsible for developing and operating its experiment station and must make 15 percent of the station's beam time available to nonteam members. We recommend use by laboratory, university, and industrial researchers.

Equipment

Two accelerators currently provide energetic ion beams for experiments. One is a 200-kilovolt Varian CF-3000 ion implanter and the second is a 3-megavolt S-series National Electrostatics tandem accelerator. Five experiment stations use beams from the tandem accelerator. The Tandem produces various ions with energies ranging from 200 keV to 20 MeV. A state of the art higher current (up to 10 mA) and higher energy (up to 800 keV) ion implanter, being built by Danfysik in Denmark, is to be installed in Spring 2007 at IBML to replace the 200-kilovolt Varian implanter. The new implanter is equipped with a tri-mode source (gas, oven, and sputter) that is capable of producing highly charged ions from virtually all elements in the periodic table.

Facility Access

Open

Last Update: 12 December 2006

Technical Contact
Dr. Yong Q. Wang
MST-8
Mail Stop: K765
Phone: 505-665-1596
Fax: 505-665-2992
E-mail Address: yqwang@lanl.gov