Development and Applications of Time-of-Flight Neutron Depth Profiling (TOF-NDP)

Published

June 1, 2008

Author(s)

S M. Cetiner, K Unlu, Robert Gregory Downing

Abstract

Neutron depth profiling (NDP) is a surface analysis technique based on the illumination of samples with thermal or sub-thermal neutrons, and subsequent release of charged particles. Emitted particles rapidly lose kinetic energy primarily through interactions with the electrons of the substrate material. The depth of the reaction site can be found by using stopping power correlations. In conventional NDP, particle residual energy is measured by using a silicon semiconductor detector. In time-of-flight NDP (TOP-NDP), the energy can be determined by particle flight time. Time measurement can be made more sensitively than the energy measurement. Silicon semiconductor detectors can be replaced by microchannel plates (MCP). In this study, TOP-NDP concept will be briefly explained; Penn State TOP-NDP facility will be introduced; preliminary measurements performed with an alpha source will be presented.

Citation

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

Volume

276

Issue

3

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Boron profiling, coincidence neutron depth profiling, conventional NDP, conventional neutron depth profiling, NDP, neutron depth profiling, time-of-fligh neutron depth profiling, TOF, TOF-NDP

Citation

Cetiner, S. , Unlu, K. and Downing, R. (2008), Development and Applications of Time-of-Flight Neutron Depth Profiling (TOF-NDP), Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (Accessed May 10, 2025)