Compact Detection System for High Sensitivity Hydrogen Profiling of Materials by Nuclear Reaction Analysis

Hydrogen is a ubiquitous contaminant that is known to have dramatic effects on the electrical, chemical, and mechanical properties of many types of materials in even minute quantities. Thus, the detection of hydrogen in materials is of major importance. Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) is a powerful technique for nondestructive profiling hydrogen in materials. However, NRA has found only limited use in many applications because of poor sensitivity due to cosmic ray background (CSRB). Most attempts to eliminate CSRB to achieve ppm detection levels using higher energy nuclear reactions or tons of passive shielding are not compatible with commercial ion beam analysis space and equipment requirements Zimmerman, et al. have previously reported upon a coincidence detector that meets IBA space requirements and reduces the cosmic ray background, but the detector suffers from lower detection efficiency and small sample size. We have replaced the BGO well detector in the Zimmerman coincidence detection scheme with a larger Nal well detector and used faster timing electronics to produce a detector that can handle larger samples with higher detection efficiency, and still eliminate cosmic ray background.