AMS method for depth profiling of trace elements concentration in materials - Construction and applications

The need to investigate the behavior of solid state materials on the impact/retention/repulsion/contamination/impregnation with special trace elements or radioactive elements has driven us to develop a modified Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) analyzing method that is able to perform the measurement of the concentration depth profile of an element in a host material. This upgraded method that we call AMS-depth profiling method (AMS-DP) measures continuously the concentration of a trace element in a given sample material as a function of the depth from the surface (e.g., tritium in carbon, deuterium in tungsten, etc.). However, in order to perform depth profiling, common AMS facilities have to undergo several changes: a new replaceable sample target-holder has to be constructed to accept small plates of solid material as samples; their position has to be adjusted in the focus point of the sputter beam; crater rim effects of the produced hole in the sample have to be avoided or removed from the registered events in the detector; suitable reference samples have to be prepared and used for calibration. All procedures are presented in the paper together with several applications.