Category: Case Studies
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Doping
Traditional Ion Implantation is often used in the semiconductor industry to change the electronic properties of materials by introducing dopant ions into the semiconductor.
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Ion Cut
Ion implantation offers a unique way of transferring thin layers of single crystal material from one wafer to another.
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Cultural Heritage
We can use Ion Beam Analysis – PIXE – to look at the trace elements in Cultural Heritage Materials to provide insight in to provenance and origins of the materials. We show an example of a ‘Leonardoesque’ painting.
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Metals in Proteins
MicroPIXE can be used to correctly identify the metal atoms in metaloproteins. X-ray crystallography is very good at identifying the important structure of the protein, but it can be difficult to distinguish the metal in the protein if one exists. A recent random sample of 36 protein samples found that 50% of them had been…
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Gun Shot Residue
Gunshot residue (GSR) is conventionally studied by SEM-EDS. We use Ion Beam Analysis – PIXE – to look for GSR signatures in cases where SEM-EDS is unable to detect all the required three elemental components used to distinguish GSR from other environmental particulates.
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Multilayers
Semiconducting amorphous iron disilicide (a-FeSi2) can be made by ion beam mixing a multilayer stack of pure Fe and Si layers. We show how Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy can be used to determine the resulting depth profile of the elements in the modified material system.