Status of the Accelerator Facility at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

An accelerator facility dedicated to ion beam materials analysis and modification has been completed at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a United States Department of Energy collaborative scientific user facility located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA. The EMSL accelerator facility is based on a Model 9SDH-2 3.4 MV tandem ion accelerator manufactured by National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC, Middleton, WI), which includes RF plasma and sputter ion sources. Three beam lines were originally constructed with integral end stations for materials analysis and modification. Recently, the+30 degrees beam line was extended to accommodate an NEC electrostatic microquad assembly, which provides focused beam spots of 20 mu-m or less on target. Efforts are currently underway to incorporate particle induced x-ray emission (PIXE), Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), and nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) capabilities in the microbeam line end station