Sub-micron wear measurement using activities under the free handling limit

In the present work we demonstrate the development of a thin layer activation (TLA) method to be able to measure micrometer wear or less by using radioactive tracing. In order to activate very swallow depths we decreased the bombarding energy to the “linear” region of the cross-section curve. The disadvantage of the method is that the wear curve will be “linear” near to the surface instead of “constant” as is the case with the usual (high energy) TLA. The advantage is that the activity of the sample will be much lower and it is concentrated in the swallower studied depth. The other possible method is irradiation under small angle (15 to 30° or even grazing incidence), which also causes a near-surface concentration of the activity produced. Both methods are demonstrated with the most suitable nuclear reactions and some commonly used industrial materials.     

Secondary implantation of 51Cr and 48V radioisotopes into plastic surfaces for nano-TLA study

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Indirect recoil implantation following a nuclear reaction is a technique used to activate the surface of materials that cannot be directly...     

Study of secondary implantation of radioisotopes during alpha-particle irradiation

This work presents the recoil and secondary implantation of radioisotopes at different bombarding energies in the range of ~?13 to ~?40 MeV by using an α-particle beam of 50 MeV irradiating a stack of Ag, Ni and Ti metal foils. Activation cross-sections for the produce radioisotopes were calculated and confronted with literature data. The implanted activity is presented as a function of the primary beam energy for six produced radioisotopes ⁵⁷Ni, ⁵⁷Co, ⁶⁵Zn, ⁵¹Cr, ⁴⁸V and ⁴⁶Sc. The use of each of these radioisotopes in engineering experiments based on the nano-thin layer activation is discussed.