The use of electron backscattering as fast imaging technique with molecular beams

Electron backscattering has been performed using a Centaurus detector, deve loped especially for low-energy electron backscattering. A H-2(+) beam of e nergy 5 MeV was used, with each proton having 2.5 MeV, and the accompanying electron having an energy of 1.3 keV. The backscattered electrons were mea sured simultaneously with the particleinduced X-ray emission (PIXE) and Rut herford backscattering (RBS) signals, as complementary information. Results show that the electron backscattering signals indeed offer elemental infor mation in imaging at least an order of magnitude faster than PIXE. This may result in novel applications in imaging of geological grains, with subsequ ent trace element analysis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.