MICROANALYSIS OF MATERIALS BY PIXE USING FOCUSED MEV HEAVY-ION BEAMS

MeV heavy ion microprobes, 3 MeV C2+, Si2+ and Ni2+, were applied for micro-PIXE measurements. It was found that the X-ray yields vary drast ically as a function of the combination of the atomic number of incide nt ions and target atoms, which indicates that there is a best combina tion for specific element analysis. This was demonstrated by an invest igation of human nail by a silicon microprobe which was compared with the case of proton. Furthermore, the minimum detectable gold weights i n silicon were also estimated as a practical case and it was found tha t a carbon microprobe was best for measuring gold atoms in silicon.