The new nuclear microprobe at Livermore

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Sandia National Laboratories/California have jointly constructed a new nuclear microprobe beamline. This beamline is located on the LLNL 10 MV tandem accelerator and can be used for multidisciplinary research using PIXE, PIGE, energy loss tomography, or IBS techniques. Distinctive features of the beamline include incorporation of magnet power supplies into the accelerator control system, computer controlled object and image slits, automated target positioning to sub-micron resolution, and video optics for beam positioning and observation. Mitigation of vibrations was accomplished with vibration isolators and a rigid beamline design while integral beamline shielding was used to shield from stray magnetic fields. Available detectors include a wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrometer, a High-Purity Germanium detector (HPGe), a Lithium-Drifted Silicon X-Ray detector (SiLi), and solid state surface barrier detectors. Along with beamline performance, results from recent measurements on determination of trace impurities in an International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) super conducting wire strand, determination of Ca/Sr ratios in seashells, and determination of minor and trace element concentrations in sperm cells are presented