DETERMINATION OF NITROGEN USING THE N-14(ALPHA, P)O-17 NUCLEAR-REACTION

A technique for quantifying nitrogen in thin films using the (N(alpha, p)O)-N-14-O-17 reaction is reported. An incident alpha particle beam w ith energy near 3.9 MeV is used and emitted protons are detected at a lab angle of 135-degrees. A 15 mum Kapton foil is placed over the dete ctor to stop elastically scattered alpha particles. A thin film contai ning a known areal density of nitrogen is used for calibration. We pre sent relative yield data on protons from the (N(alpha,p0)O)-N-14-O-17 reaction at 135-degrees lab angle from 3.4 MeV to 4.0 MeV as well as a n example of the application of this technique in determining nitrogen content in thin films, Possible interfering reactions, particularly ( Si(alpha,p)P)-Si-28-P-31 are also discussed.