The 10 most-cited articles in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2022

SDTrimSP is a popular simulation program to compute several effects of the interaction between an impinging ion and a solid, such as ion implantation ranges, damage formation or sputtering of surface atoms. We now introduce a graphical user interface for SDTrimSP to make its operation more accessible for a broad group of users. It is written as a separate Python program and is not restricted to any specific operating system. The interface allows a quick and easy start as well as the direct evaluation of SDTrimSP simulations. Its capabilities are demonstrated here in the form of several example cases, including the dynamic simulations with SDTrimSP, where ion-induced target changes are taken into account. The presented graphical user interface is made freely available to support a large number of users in performing simulations of ion–solid interaction.

The Scanning Light Ion Microprobe in Uppsala (SLIM-UP) was originally installed during 1989/90. Since then, the microprobe has undergone several minor and major modifications. The present configuration is a re-build of the SLIM-UP, that is now connected to the 5 MV tandem Pelletron® accelerator of the Tandem Laboratory, Uppsala University. We give an overview of the present status of the Uppsala microprobe facility, including a detailed description of the components and a recent resolution test. In addition, we present the most recent technical developments whereby, the system is able to quickly image large area samples, to reliably identify individual microparticles, and to analyse them separately. Optimal parameters for a certain system can be found by simple test measurements on dummy samples. Our test scenario comprises of Fe particles embedded in a light matrix, representing human tissue. We found a good compromise between the required analysis time and particle detection efficiency.

Compact, low energy accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has evolved over the past years as one of the most sensitive, selective, and robust techniques for the analysis of heavy and long lived radionuclides. In this study, we focus on the analytical capabilities of the compact AMS system MILEA, mainly for 236U analyses. First, the setup of the system for actinide analyses is presented and the special technical setup for 23xU/238U (x = 3, 6, 5) is discussed. Then, the background and sensitivity for 236U/238U are studied in detail, and finally results from the first routine runs are presented and discussed. Our results show that the ETH Zurich MILEA system is ideally suited for fast, reliable, high sensitivity, and almost background free analyses of 236U/238U in environmental samples allowing the analysis of larger batches of samples with reasonably small sample sizes or volumes.