New fields
Joint Research Activities
This work package will attempt to provide
a new dimension to the ion beam analysis
capabilities. Ion Beam analysis has been
developed over the years to provide detailed
2D elemental maps of materials.
Traditionally beams have been a few microns
in diameter setting the resolution
of these maps. Recently 3D elemental tomographic
maps have been added to the
analysis arsenal and using the beam to
view samples in transmission has yielded
interesting stopping contrast maps. Just
coming on line are new nanometer resolution
beams which will give greater mapping
precision.
The work package is broken down into
two key tasks. 3D Analysis will be led by JSI
as they already have experience of developing
ion tomography systems. This task
will enhance the analysis of 3 dimensional
structures. The second key task Chemical
and Molecular Imaging, led by SUR, will
explore new ways of extracting chemical
and/or molecular maps from complex
samples.
Key task: 3D Analysis
The objective is to develop new experimental and calculation approaches that will lead to enhanced 3D tomographic IBA techniques using ion nanobeams.
News!
Technique 1: Implementation of STIM/ PIXE 3D tomography for the chemical analysis of biological or inert materials at CNRS-CENBG and SUR nano-beams
STIM (Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy)- Tomography has shown its great potential in the last few years to be one of the most powerful techniques to image individual biological cells, minute tissue sections or inert materials like micro-composite fibres in 3D. The subtask will cover:
- Design, construction and testing of the goniometer stage to be installed in the analysis chambers of the new nanobeam at CNRS together with the associated control software. Software development for the 3D reconstruction of data
- The development of sample preparation techniques: for working at the individual cell scale, advanced cryo-preparation methods will be developed in order to keep the samples structure and its chemical composition as close as possible to that of the living material
Technique 2: Confocal ion beam induced X-ray spectroscopy
The application of novel X-ray polycapillary lenses in Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) is in the early phase. The aim of this subtask is to continue to develop the experimental setup at JSI and improve the software approaches for the confocal geometry using a nano-beam at the same time keeping close contact with the very fast technology improvements in X-ray lens production. The subtask will cover:
- Integration of the best available X-ray lens with smallest available FWHM of sensing volume (JSI)
- Exploration of the unique ability of scanning the beam, which is not available in more common confocal X-ray fluorescence, available at synchrotrons, in order to find best measuring modes for 3D X-ray tomography (JSI, RBI)
- Development of quantification approaches for quantitative analysis with PIXE (JSI)
Key task: Chemical and Molecular Imaging
The key task aims to enhance the present
analytical capability of the MeV ion beams
by exploiting different aspects of MeV ion
irradiation.
One of the main limiting factors in conventional
Ion Beam Analysis using scattering
or X-ray emission is that for the most
part the analysis only provides information
on the elemental composition of the
material. These techniques have seldom
been used to gain chemical or molecular
information. This key task will attempt to
develop an ability to provide both chemical
and molecular maps of samples developing
two new techniques.
Technique 1: Chemical Imaging
The use of high resolution detectors in PIXE has for a long time been known to give information about the chemical bonding of the elements in the sample. To date high resolution X-ray work has been limited to the use of wave length dispersive X-ray (WDX) spectrometers.
Technique 2: MeV Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (MeV SIMS)
SPIRIT aim to exploit previous work started in Sweden (Sundqvist BUR et al. Science, 226(1986) 696) on Particle Desorption Mass Spectrometry and the more recent work from the Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (J. Matsuo et al, submitted to Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2008) to provide detailed spectroscopic fingerprinting of large molecular systems with the aim to providing detailed molecular maps.
