CARBON FOILS FOR NUCLEAR ACCELERATOR EXPERIMENTS

Carbon foils are the most commonly used targets and backings in nearly all experiments in nuclear physics and related subjects performed at ion accelerators. Due to their high tensile strength carbon foils can be prepared even with a thickness below 1 mug/CM2 therefore they are e xclusivly used as backings whenever a low-Z element is tolerable. Ther e are several methods available to prepare carbon foils with different properties. A review is presented about these methods and about the a pplication of special techniques in order to achieve specific foil pro perties. The characterization and exact thickness determination of car bon foils are described in detail.