Nuclear emission microscopies

Alternatives to traditional nuclear microprobe analysis (NMA) emerged two years ago with the invention of ion electron emission microscopy (IEEM). With nuclear emission microscopy (NEM) the ion beam is only partially focused so as to fill the field of view of a special emission particle microscope system fitted with a single particle position sensitive detector (PSD). When a single ion strikes the sample, the emitted secondaries (e.g. electrons, photons, ions, etc.) are projected at great magnification onto this PSD where position signals are generated. These X and Y signals are then put into coincidence with other signals made by this same ion in a fashion completely analogous to traditional nuclear microprobe analysis. In this paper, an update will be given on the state of NEMs, which currently includes IEEM and highly charged ion-secondary ion mass spectroscopy (HCI-SIMS). In addition, a new type of full-field nuclear imaging is proposed: ion photon emission microscopy or IPEM. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.