RSPhys is the host of the NCRIS Heavy-Ion Accelerator Capability that includes accelerators used for ion-beam modification and analysis of materials. This presentation will provide an overview of these capabilities and their applications, with a particular focus on the modification of materials by ion-implantation and analysis of materials using elastic scattering of ions.

While ion-implantation was originally developed as a doping technique for silicon-based microelectronics it has evolved into a versatile research tool for the synthesis and modification of materials. Applications range from the synthesis of alloys and compounds to defect engineering in 2D materials and quantum computing. Central to its versatility is the ability to implant any species into a material, regardless of thermodynamic contains, to implant individual ions and to accurately…

Our ion-beam analysis facilities are based on the elastic scattering of light, energetic ions, and include Rutherford backscattering spectrometry for determining thin film composition and thickness and elastic recoil detection (ERD) for the detection and depth profiling of hydrogen. For crystalline samples, the former can also be combined with ion channelling, where the ions are aligned along low-index crystallographic directions, to determine defect distributions or the crystallographic atom-location of impurity species. A critical advantage of these techniques is that they provide absolute quantitative analysis without the need for reference samples.

The physical basis of these techniques will be discussed, together with examples of current applications. The talk will be followed by a tour of our NCRIS-supported facilities.