Report on the Acadiana Research Laboratory nuclear microprobe system

The Acadiana Research Laboratory of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette provides high energy ion beams for materials research. Major components of the ion beam systems include a National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC) 1.7 MV tandem Pelletron accelerator system with both SNICS and RF ion sources and a Varian CF-4 200 kV implanter. The NEC Pelletron has three operational beamlines that provide a wide range of capabilities for materials modification and analysis, including such techniques as PIXE, PIGE, RBS, RFS, TOF-ERDA and ion implantation. An Oxford Microbeams Ltd. microprobe system was recently declared operational with the attainment of a 1.5 μm×2.0 μm beam spot size. Microprobe techniques presently available include μPIXE, μRBS and scanning transmission ion microscopy (STIM).