Accurate automated non-resonant NRA depth profiling: Application to the low 3He concentration detection in UO2 and SiC

An automated method was developed to extract elemental depth profiles from non-resonant nuclear reaction analyses (NRA), which involves a two-stage procedure. The first stage enables the determination of the number of layers to be used in the final depth profile determination along with the thicknesses of each of the layers. To this end, the RESNRA program, which relies on the SIMNRA 5.0 simulation software to calculate a multilayer target, was designed at CERI. A definition of the depth resolution based on statistical considerations is proposed. In the second stage of the fitting process, a depth profile and corresponding error bars are extracted from the experimental spectrum by running a generalized reduced gradient (GRG2) algorithm using the previously calculated multilayer target. The one-to-one correspondence between the experimental spectrum and the depth profile demonstrates the objectivity of the method. The method is then applied to determining low concentration 3He depth profiles in implanted UO2 and SiC samples using the 3He(2H, 4He)1H non-resonant nuclear reaction. The results clearly demonstrate the relevance and potential of the method.