Bochum 2009 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Hadronen und Kerne

HK 77: Nuclear Physics Applications

HK 77.1: Invited Group Report

Thursday, March 19, 2009, 16:30–17:00, H-ZO 100

Modern ion-beam techniques for material science and for preserving cultural heritage — •Milko Jaksic — Rudjer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia

Accelerated ion beams of the low MeV energy range have been used for decades in many different applications. These are in particular techniques for materials analysis, as well as techniques for materials modification. Modern developments of ion beam techniques increased their impact to other fields of research which can be noticed today in two quite different fields, in material science and in preservation of cultural heritage objects.

Development of single ion techniques for materials modification expanded significantly in recent years. Unique property of fast heavy ions that can transfer a significant amount of energy to nanosized volumes became the basis of techniques for nanotechnology. Our recent results showed that even heavy ions with energies below 0.5 MeV/u can be successfully used for nanostructuring using single ion tracks. Furthermore, single ions have been shown to be a valuable tool for probing electronic transport properties (IBIC).

Among numerous examples of IBA (ion beam analysis) and cultural heritage research, the story of Apoxiomenos, an ancient bronze sculpture of athlete, being recovered after 2 millenniums from the bottom of the Adriatic Sea, could not be told without the nuclear physics. Here, AMS provided results to determine the age of sculpture, while microanalysis of alloy composition and studies of the isotope ratios suggested its provenance.