ABSTRACT
Nuclear microscopy (NM) is a novel multielemental analytical technique that uses medium-energy ion beams focused down to approximately 0.5 µm spatial resolution. It has a unique ability to simultaneously use several complementary nuclear analytical techniques like particle induced X-ray emission, Rutherford backscattering, scanning transmission ion microscopy, and particle induced gamma emission. Aerosol samples to be analyzed by NM or any other microanalytical technique are typically collected using a single-orifice cascade impactor. In most NM systems, the focused beam is scanned over the sample by using either magnetic coils or electrostatic deflectors. NM laboratories are, therefore, inevitably linked to big universities and/or research institutes and as such, nurture a wide range of research programs and applications. Hair analysis was one of the first applications of NM in bioenvironmental applications. The ultimate goal of environmental pollution monitoring and control is to identify pollution sources, find their impact on the environment, and, if necessary, reduce their concentration to an acceptable level.
