SBIR Phase I: Positron Auger Spectroscopy for Advanced Materials Analysis

9861318 第一阶段的研究将确定发展正电子-电子湮灭过程成为创新一代俄歇电子能谱（AES）仪器的可行性。众所周知，低能正电子与固体表面的碰撞在正电子与固体中的芯能级电子湮灭之后产生大量的次级电子和俄歇电子。这种正电子AES（PAES）的固有信噪比（S/N）比传统的电子束AES（EAES）高几个数量级，这就是PAES的吸引力所在。我们将建立一个实验性的正电子源或束使用22 Na作为正电子发射体和各种离子光学元件，将此束传输到放置在商业AES仪器上的样品表面。因此，本可行性研究将直接比较PAES和EAES的相同样品，以便更好地评估PAES可能的灵敏度改进。这项研究将是查尔斯埃文斯协会和北德克萨斯大学的大卫戈尔登教授的合作。 PAES的成功开发将为高技术材料的顶部原子层的化学分析引入更灵敏的表面分析技术。这项研究还可能导致正电子源的发展，将传统的AES仪器转换为PAES工具。

9861318 This Phase I research will determine the feasibility of developing positron-electron annihilation processes into an innovative generation of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) instruments. It is well known that collisions of low energy positrons with solid surfaces produces copious quantities of secondary and Auger electrons after positron annihilation with a core level electron in the solid. The intrinsic signal-to-noise (S/N) of this positron AES (PAES) is several orders of magnitude higher than conventional electron beam AES (EAES) and therein lies the attraction of PAES. We will build an experimental positron source or beam using 22Na as the positron emitter and various ion optical elements to transport this beam to surfaces of samples placed on commercial AES instruments. This feasibility research will thus directly compare PAES and EAES for identical samples in order to better assess the possible sensitivity improvements of PAES. This research will be a collaboration between Charles Evans Associates and Professor David Golden at the University of North Texas. The successful development of PAES will introduce a more sensitive surface analysis technique for chemical analysis of the top atomic layers of high technology materials. This research could also lead to the development of positron sources to convert conventional AES instruments into PAES tools.