New problems in nuclear microprobe analysis of materials

Advanced materials are being evaluated for use as novel radiation detectors and microelectronic devices, including, potentially, synthetic diamond radiation-hard detectors for high-energy physics experiments and tissue equivalent dosimeters. Use of a nuclear microprobe has allowed spatially resolved electrical properties of the detector material to be measured. However quantitative analysis requires good models for charge collection mechanisms by ion beam induced charge (IBIC). In fact, nuclear microprobe analysis is playing an increasingly prominent role in the analysis of detector materials and devices by IBIC, with secondary roles also being played by ionoluminescence (IL) and the traditional techniques of Rutherford backscattering and particle induced X-ray emission. In this paper, many recent applications are reviewed and some examples of applications of the nuclear microprobe to the study of new materials and devices are presented. Some of these applications involve wide band gap materials, such as GaN, as well as novel detectors for radiation dosimetry in cancer therapy, photovoltaic devices and other microelectronic devices. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.