Compositional analysis of alloy by heavy ion RBS

The Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) using heavy ion beams is applied for compositional analysis of alloy. Samples were deposited on glassy carbon substrates by means of the sputter deposition or the flash evaporation. As prove beams for the analysis, multi-ionized ion beams of carbon or oxygen up to 8 MeV from a 1.7 MV tandem-type accelerator were used. It was found that alloy elements of atomic weight lower than about 42 can be separated in RBS spectra using 8 MeV carbon beam, whereas conventional RBS analysis using 2 MeV helium beam can separate elements lower than 25. Several technical problems relating to the energy resolution of detector, compositional change and impurity inclusion during the deposition were discussed as well as the advantages of the heavy ion RBS method for the analysis of alloy. (author)