Heavy ion activation analysis

A report on radioactivation with ion beams of 3<=Z<=8 and energies of approximately 1 MeV/amu is presented. First, activation with 6Li and 14N is presented with some analytical applications: the determination of C via 12C(6Li,αn)13N; the determination of Li and Be, using 14N activation. Next, examples, with limitations in selectivity. The detection limits using a 1 μA h of activation irradiation are 5 ppm for C and 1 ppm for Li or Be. With 9Be suitable for analytical applications are: sup(10,11)B(9Be,xn)18F and 14N(9Be,αn)18F. Assuming a 1 μA h irradiation the detection limits for N and B are 1.5 ng and 0.5 ng, respectively, using a 7.8 MeV 9Be beam. For activation with 12C, experimental results with 12 MeV 12C beam demonstrate that the beam is best suited for 7Li analysis by the reaction 7Li(12C,n)18F. The detection limit for a 1 μA h irradiation is 1 ng and the only other low Z elements activated are B and C. Finally, 12C radioactivation was further combined with autoradiography for positional analysis. The spatial resolution of the technique was estimated to be 40 μm for an exposure corresponding to 6x105 disintegrations. As low as 10-12 g of Li was readily detected by autoradiography. (author)