Unambiguous automatic evaluation of multiple Ion Beam Analysis data with Simulated Annealing

We present, for the first time, simultaneous analysis of multiple Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) spectra of the same sample, which may be Rutherford Backscattering (RBS), non-Rutherford elastic scattering, and/or Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis (ERDA) spectra, ensuring a fully consistent analysis of all data. Any combination of incident ion at any energy, with or without a stopping foil before the detector, can be treated, and plural scattering corrections can be introduced. The program uses the Simulated Annealing global optimisation algorithm, and is fully automatic, with no input from the user except for the data and the experimental conditions. Two concrete examples are given, for which the analysis time was comparable to the data collection time. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.