IN-SITU CAPABILITY OF ION-BEAM MODIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MATERIALS AT LOS-ALAMOS-NATIONAL-LABORATORY

The capability of in-situ ion beam modification and characterization o f materials developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory is described. A beam-line from a 3 MV tandem accelerator and a beam-line from a 200 kV ion implanter are joined together in an in-situ target chamber. The chamber is equipped with a cold and hot sample stage with a temperatu re range from - 100 to 500 degrees C. The angular (sample spin and bas al rotation) motions and translational motions of the sample stage are controlled by a multi-axis goniometer. This chamber provides a unique capability to conduct a temperature dependent experiment of ion irrad iation and sequential backscattering and channeling analysis. The effi ciency and reliability of in-situ ion beam techniques are demonstrated by two examples, irradiation damage in (100) MgAl2O4 spinel crystals and ion-beam-induced densification of zirconia sol-gel thin films.