Ion Beam Analysis (IBA)

Tandem Accelerator

ANTARES accelerator

The IBA Applications Group provides Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) to a wide range of users, with ANSTO's own Strategic Research Projects collaborating with various universities, research institutes and industry groups. IBA analysis can be applied to functional materials interfaces, human activity and climate variability and environmental pathways.

The Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) Group operates two accelerators: the STAR accelerator and ANTARES 10MV Tandem accelerator. Each of these has a number of beam lines and supporting facilities. In addition the group operates a high current 50 kV Ion Implantation Facility, MEVVA.

The Analytical Capabilities available on these facilities include particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), proton induced gamma emission (PIGE), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), particle elastic scattering (PESA) and  a heavy ion time-of-flight (RToF) elastic recoil spectrometry (ERD). In addition, the heavy ion microprobe offers elemental imaging of up to 35 chemical species with spatial resolution of 1 micrometers.

This suite of accelerator-based characterisation techniques has been used for the analysis of air pollution, heavy metals in biological systems, rock and soil specimens, thin films, archaeological artefacts and engineering materials such as metal and polymer coatings. They also provide a useful means of probing problem areas like corrosion and coating delamination due to poor interfacial bonding.

IBA Group members have had a number of journal publications and delivered presentations at international and regional conferences. To find out more follow this link: Publications

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