Nuclear emission microscopies

Alternatives to traditional nuclear microprobe analysis (NMA) emerged two y ears ago with the invention of ion electron emission microscopy (IEEM). Wit h nuclear emission microscopy (NEM) the ion beam is only partially focused so as to fill the field of view of a special emission particle microscope s ystem fitted with a single particle position sensitive detector (PSD). When a single ion strikes the sample, the emitted secondaries (e.g. electrons, photons, ions, etc.) are projected at great magnification onto this PSD whe re position signals are generated. These X and Y signals are then put into coincidence with other signals made by this same ion in a fashion completel y analogous to traditional nuclear microprobe analysis. In this paper, an u pdate will be given on the state of NEMs, which currently includes IEEM and highly charged ion-secondary ion mass spectroscopy (HCI-SIMS). In addition , a new type of full-field nuclear imaging is proposed: ion photon emission microscopy or IPEM. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.