Improvement of the Reliability and Accuracy of Heavy Ion Beam Nuclear Analytical Techniques

Many emerging technologies are based on the development of advanced engineering materials capable of withstanding higher temperatures, higher stresses, and more aggressive corrosive and oxidizing environments, and more efficient and more sensitive functional materials for use in high technology products such as light-emitting materials, sensors, and lasers. Carbon and oxygen based refractory ceramics, and light element composites and alloys are potential candidate materials under development, and in which nuclear analytical facilities and spectrometries are available to support their research and development needs. Nuclear analytical techniques using heavy ions from particle accelerators have a demonstrated competitive advantage in that they can provide important information about the concentrations, distributions, and locations of light elements that are not readily available or accessible to non-nuclear spectrometries. This CRP will address identified shortcomings and limitations in the utilization of heavy ions through the delivery of better analytical tools with a higher degree of reliability, accuracy, and user confidence, thereby enabling an expansion in the range of problems addressable and solvable.