Heavy-Ion Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry : A Comparison of ¹¹B with ⁴He Ions

Abstract

The Rutherford backscattering spectrometry was examined with ¹¹B and ⁴He ions. Backscattering spectra improve in the mass resolution, the depth resolution and the channeling minimum yield when 6 MeV ¹¹B ions are used instead of 2 MeV ⁴He ions, which have been used commonly. Then the terminal voltage of a 1.7 MV tandem Cockcroft-Walton accelerator was calibrated by means of a combination of the ²⁷Al(p, γ)²⁸Si resonance method and a new iterative method using ¹H and ⁴He ions. The true terminal voltage of the accelerator is lower than the corresponding nominal values, and the deviation quadratically increases with increasing voltage.