Bio-medical application of ion-microbeam analysis technique, micro-PIXE

Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE), an established elemental analysis method was combined with the ion microbeam technique of focusing MeV ion beam (usually a few MeV proton beam) down to a 1 μm or less size and of scanning over a minute sample or localized area of a sample with such a small beam, so as to be a technique of micro-PIXE obtaining elemental distributions or elemental maps in the sample with high-spatial resolution. This technique has been utilized as a powerful analyzing tool for various research fields such as biology, medicine, environmental science, archaeology, geology and so on. In particular, bio-medical application has been progressed recently at the light-ion microbeam system in Takasaki Advanced Radiation Research Institute of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA Takasaki). This paper shows a basic scheme of this analysis technique and some of examples from our collaborative research with bio-medical research groups using the system in JAEA Takasaki. (author)