Estimation of the impurity levels in polyimide foils and the life-time of the foils irradiated by charged projectiles

The life-time of thin polyimide foils (prepared by in-situ polymerisation) in beams of 2.0 MeV helium ions and 1.5 MeV protons has been studied, irradiating foils with beams of different intensities. The impurity levels of the foils measured by PIXE and RBS were found to be in order of ng/cm2.