Determination of carbon in thin layers by means of the12C(d,n)13N nuclear reaction using a 2 MeV Van de Graaf accelerator

A nondestructive method for carbon determination in layers of 3–10 m thickness is considered. The method is based on using the¹²C(d, n)¹³N nuclear reaction with simultaneous account of surface contamination by means of the¹²C(d, p)¹³C competitive reaction. The total cross sections for the¹²C(d, n)¹³N reaction were measured from 0.4 to 1.7 MeV. Proton beam annealing was applied with the purpose of lowering surface carbon content. The detection limit of carbon by this method is 0.5 ppm, relative standard deviation is 0.06. Disturbing effects of carbon diffusion and¹³N recoil backs cattering are also taken into account.