Ions – a powerful tool for analyzing and modifying materials

Zoom webinar | Live stream on Youtube

By Iva Bogdanović Radović
From Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI), Laboratory for Ion Beam Interactions (LIBI) (Croatia)

Passing through the material, energetic ions lose their energy in many interactions with electrons in atomic shells and atomic nuclei. These interactions are the basis for different ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques as well as ion beam material modification.

Ions can be focused to micron dimensions and scanned over a specific sample surface. Most IBA techniques that can be applied with broad ion beams can also be used with focused ions. In this lecture the emphasis will be on two methods mainly used with focused ion beams. The first imaging technique is Ion Beam Induced Charge (IBIC) used to examine detector charge collection efficiency and detector response to ion beam irradiation. Another is Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy (STIM) which can provide information on material thickness or density.

By adjusting the energy and type of ions, different sample depths can be probed and different amounts of energy can be deposited in the material. Sometimes this deposited energy is sufficient to permanently change material properties, which is the basis for ion beam implantation, material doping, defect engineering, radiation hardness testing, or ion beam lithography. For quantum readout or quantum computing, individual counted impurity atoms are implanted into the host material at specific positions where they can be functionalized and used as quantum objects. In the lecture, some examples of all these techniques will be presented.