Development and applications of microanalytical techniques

The development of new analytical techniques is an essential part of our everyday life and is dictated by strong progress in modern science and technology. Both these areas require more precise information about materials and processes involved. Due to these requirements we have been observing a rapid growth in the development of techniques that require both a high spatial resolution and high sensitivity. Modern analytical techniques provide an important interface between science and applications. The works presented in this habilitation thesis span the period of almost 20 years. During this time the author has been leading the development and applications of several new analytical and micro analytical techniques which have been documented in this thesis. This development has required development of ideas, strong leadership, organisational skills, organisation of funds and groups to carry out the necessary work. In chapter 3 the use of the PIXE and XANES techniques described an investigation of permeability for selected elements inside cells. It was important to develop new protocols for sample preparation and analysis and a large number of cells were necessary in order to obtain meaningful data. This development was closely associated with work presented in chapter 4 where the role of sample damage under the MeV ion beam bombardment was investigated. At that time we were the leading group in the world to perform such studies. Chapter 5 describes development of new analytical techniques and its possible applications. Development of the SIHF has been probably the most demanding and difficult project and was described in chapter 6 and it was closely related with development of a diamond detector described in chapter 7. A great part of these works were performed by the author at the Micro Analytical Research Centre (MARC) in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne in Australia. However, some works were performed at GSI in Germany and BNL in USA. (author)