Ion beams - Applications

By producing and accelerating charged particles, it is possible to create ion beams. To be able to control these ion beams, it was necessary to understand their interaction with matter, as well as the associated physical phenomena, such as energy loss, stopping power, the creation of defects, and so on. The mathematical formalism and implementation of ion beams (production, mass sorting, experimental set-ups) were described in the article [M 4 395] .

Ion beams are a versatile tool for the synthesis of new materials and the structural and chemical analysis of complex systems. The use of ion beams provides an additional parameter for the experimenter to explore phase diagrams: the system remains fixed (in the manner of a quench) as soon as the beam is cut off.

In this article, we'll take a non-exhaustive look at several fields of application for ion beams:

• as tools for synthesizing and modifying materials, such as ion mixing of thin films, surface hardening in metallurgy, ion implantation in microelectronics, nanostructuring and Focused Ion Beam lithography;

• as a tool for analysis and control, as well as for simulating neutron irradiation. We will describe the various ion beam analysis techniques, which have a wide range of applications: characterizing multi-layer and multi-element materials, obtaining depth profiles of light elements, determining the origin of pollutants and contaminants, and carrying out non-destructive analyses of cultural heritage objects.