ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses surface analytical methods based on ion-beam bombardment of a target material. These techniques are called Rutherford backscattering (RBS), elastic recoil depth analysis (ERDA) and nuclear reaction analysis (NRA). The sensitivity of RBS for a given element depends on the atomic number of the target atom. The shape of the RBS spectrum for a thick target is defined by energy dependencies of both the scattering cross-section and the stopping power. In contrast to RBS measurement where light-element signals are superimposed on a background arising from the heavier substrate, in ERDA the heavier-substrate signal is superimposed on that of the light element. ERDA employs the forward elastically recoiled atoms, while NRA exploits the inelastic processes that can occur. Nuclear reactions, in which the nature of the target atom changes and/or the kinetic energy is not conserved, have only recently been used in material analysis.
