Elementary nuclear analysis techniques
Authenticating vintage bottles of wine by means of high-energy ion beams

Elementary nuclear analysis techniques are all based on the study of the interaction between a beam of ions (¹H⁺, ²H⁺, ⁴He⁺) of high energy (between 500 keV and 3.5 MeV) and the atoms of the target to be analyzed. These different interactions give rise to different types of radiation, the detection of which is at the origin of each method. Each of these methods has its own specific features, described here with examples of how they are used to solve very different problems.

The equipment used for this type of analysis consists of a particle gas pedal to produce the initial ion beam. The equipment used at CENBG is a Singletron^® electrostatic machine manufactured by HVEE. The creation of the high accelerating voltage uses the principle of an electronic voltage multiplier described by Cockcroft and Walton. In such a...