Márius Pavlovič

CEMS studies of structural modifications of metallic glasses by ion bombardment

Fe76Mo8Cu1B15 and Fe74Nb3Cu1Si16B6 amorphous metallic alloys were exposed to ion bombardment with nitrogen ions and protons to ensure different degree of radiation damage. The radiation damage profiles were calculated in the “full cascade” mode. Conversion electron Mössbauer spectrometry was employed to scan structural modifications in the surface regions of the irradiated alloys. In Fe76Mo8Cu1B15, the irradiation with 130 keV N+ has caused a significant increase of the hyperfine magnetic fields and isomer shift due to changes in topological and chemical short-range order (SRO), respectively. No appreciable effects were revealed after bombardment with 80 keV H+ ions. Fe74Nb3Cu1Si16B6 amorphous metallic alloy was irradiated by 110 keV N+ and 37 keV H+ and only changes in chemical SRO were revealed after bombardment with nitrogen ions. The observed alternations of the structure depend primarily on the total number of displacements of the resonant atoms which are closely related to the fluence as well as type and energy of the incident ions.

GaAs detectors irradiated by low doses of electrons

Semi-insulating (SI) GaAs detectors were irradiated by 5 MeV electrons up to a dose of 69 kGy, in order to test their radiation hardness. The electric and spectrometric stability of detectors was examined as a function of the absorbed dose. Investigated detectors showed a very good detector radiation resistance within a dose up to 40 kGy followed by deterioration of some spectrometric and electric properties. However, the reverse current and the detector charge collection efficiency showed minimum changes with the overall applied doses. The obtained results will be used as a preliminary study for further radiation-hardness investigations of GaAs detectors against high energy electrons. This will complete our previous studies of GaAs detector radiation hardness against fast neutrons and γ-rays.

Femtosecond and highly sensitive GaAs metal–semiconductor–metal photodetectors grown on aluminum mirrors/pseudo-substrates,

In this study, ultrafast GaAs metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) photodetectors grown on aluminum mirrors/pseudo-substrates were fabricated and tested. Surface characterization measurements revealed the good quality of the surface morphology, while x-ray diffraction measurements showed several crystallographic orientations of the GaAs layer. The material exhibited a 50 fs carrier lifetime due to growth-induced defects. The response of the photodetectors showed a full width at half maximum of 300 fs. These results demonstrate that the growth of GaAs layers on lattice-mismatched metallic substrates with high thermal conductivity is a promising approach for low-cost and large-area fabrication of electronic and ultrafast photonic devices that require a highly effective thermal drain.

Ion irradiation studies of construction materials for high-power accelerators

The paper reviews the activities and reports the current results of GSI-INTAS projects that are dealing with investigations of construction materials for high-power accelerators and their components. Three types of materials have been investigated, namely metals (stainless steel and copper), metallic glasses (Nanoperm, Finemet and Vitrovac) and organic materials (polyimide insulators and glass fiber reinforced plastics/GFRP). The materials were irradiated by different ion beams with various fluencies and energies. The influence of radiation on selected physical properties of these materials has been investigated with the aid of gamma-ray spectroscopy, transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy (TMS), conversion electrons Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS), optical spectroscopy (IR and UV/VIS) and other analytical methods. Some experiments were accompanied with computer simulations by FLUKA, SHIELD and SRIM codes. Validity of the codes was verified by comparison of the simulation results with experiments. After the validation, the codes were used to complete the data that could not be obtained experimentally.

MCNPX Monte Carlo simulations of particle transport in SiC semiconductor detectors of fast neutrons

The aim of this paper was to investigate particle transport properties of a fast neutron detector based on silicon carbide. MCNPX (Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended) code was used in our study because it allows seamless particle transport, thus not only interacting neutrons can be inspected but also secondary particles can be banked for subsequent transport. Modelling of the fast-neutron response of a SiC detector was carried out for fast neutrons produced by 239Pu-Be source with the mean energy of about 4.3 MeV. Using the MCNPX code, the following quantities have been calculated: secondary particle flux densities, reaction rates of elastic/inelastic scattering and other nuclear reactions, distribution of residual ions, deposited energy and energy distribution of pulses. The values of reaction rates calculated for different types of reactions and resulting energy deposition values showed that the incident neutrons transfer part of the carried energy predominantly via elastic scattering on silicon and carbon atoms. Other fast-neutron induced reactions include inelastic scattering and nuclear reactions followed by production of α-particles and protons. Silicon and carbon recoil atoms, α-particles and protons are charged particles which contribute to the detector response. It was demonstrated that although the bare SiC material can register fast neutrons directly, its detection efficiency can be enlarged if it is covered by an appropriate conversion layer. Comparison of the simulation results with experimental data was successfully accomplished.

GaAs detectors irradiated by electrons at different dose rates

The radiation hardness of Semi-Insulating (SI) GaAs detectors against high-energy electrons was investigated. The detectors were irradiated by 5 MeV electrons. The influence of two irradiation parameters, the total absorbed dose (up to 24 kGy) and the applied dose rate (20, 40 and 80 kGy/h), on their spectrometric properties was studied. An 241Am gamma-ray source was used to evaluate the spectrometric properties. The applied dose has negatively affected the detector CCE (Charge Collection Efficiency) and has influenced also the energy resolution. Nevertheless, a global increase of detection efficiency with the dose was observed. Three different dose rates used during irradiation did not affect the CCE, but in the range of doses from 4 to 16 kGy an influence of the applied dose rate upon two other parameters was observed. With higher dose rates, a steeper increase in the detection efficiency and significant worsening of energy resolution were achieved.

Simulation of the Residual Activity Induced by High-Energy Heavy Ions

Abstract Quantification of residual activity is an important issue for high-power accelerator facilities like the Facility for Antiprotons and Ion Research (FAIR). While beam losses of 1 W/m are at present accepted for proton machines as a tolerable level for ensuring “hands-on” maintenance, the beam-loss tolerances for high-energy heavy-ion accelerators have not yet been quantified. The Monte Carlo particle transport codes FLUKA and SHIELD were used to simulate the irradiation of copper and stainless steel by different ions (1H, 4He, 12C, 20Ne, 40Ar, 84Kr, 132Xe, 197Au, and 238U) with energies typical for FAIR machines. Copper and stainless steel were chosen as common materials for accelerator structures. The isotope inventory contributing >90% to the total residual activity does not depend on the projectile species; it depends only on the target material and projectile energy. The activity per watt induced by a 1 GeV/u heavy ion is lower than the activity per watt induced by a 1-GeV proton. A tolerable beam-loss level for a 1 GeV/u 238U beam was found to be ˜5 W/m.

Radiation damage studies of soft magnetic metallic glasses irradiated with high-energy heavy ions

Some soft magnetic metallic glasses are considered for use in magnetic cores of accelerator radio frequency cavities. Due to losses of the circulating ion beam, they may be exposed to irradiation by different ions at different energies. This paper presents data and review results of irradiation experiments concerning the influence of high-energy heavy ions on magnetic susceptibility of VITROPERM®-type metallic glasses. Samples of the VITROPERM® magnetic ribbons were irradiated by Au, Xe and U ions at 11.1 MeV/A (per nucleon) and 5.9 MeV/A, respectively. Irradiation fluences from 1 × 1011 up to 1 × 1013 ions/cm2 were applied. In case of the Au and U ions, the total fluence was accumulated in one beamtime, whereas two separate beamtimes were used to accumulate the final fluence in case of the Xe ions. Relative change in the samples’ magnetic susceptibility after and before irradiation was evaluated as a function of the irradiation fluence. The irradiation experiments were performed with the UNILAC accelerator at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH. They were simulated in SRIM2010 in order to obtain ionization densities (electronic stopping, dE/dx) and dpa (displacements per atom) caused by the ion beams in the sample material. This paper focuses mainly on the results collected in experiments with the Xe ions and compares them with data obtained in earlier experiments using Au and U ions. Radiation hardness of VITROPERM® is compared with radiation hardness of VITROVAC® that was studied in previous experiments. The VITROPERM® samples showed less drop in magnetic susceptibility in comparison with the VITROVAC® ones, and this drop occurred at higher fluences. This indicates higher radiation hardness of VITROPERM® compared with VITROVAC®. In addition, heavier ions cause bigger change in magnetic susceptibility than the lighter ones. The effect can be roughly scaled with electronic stopping, which suggests that the main mechanism of radiation damage is associated with swift electrons generated in the material via ionization by primary heavy ions.

Ranges of protons in biological targets

Abstract The paper introduces a simple fitting function for quick assessment of proton ranges in biological targets and human tissues. The function has been found by fitting an extensive data set of Monte Carlo proton ranges obtained with the aid of the SRIM-2013 code. The data has been collected for 28 different targets at 8 energies in the interval from 60 MeV to 220 MeV. The paper shows that at a given kinetic proton-beam energy, the Monte Carlo ranges can be satisfactorily fitted by a power function that depends solely on the target density. This is a great advantage for targets, for which the exact chemical composition is not known, or the mean ionizing potential is not reliably known. The satisfactory fit is meant as the fit that stays within the natural range straggling of the Monte Carlo ranges. In the second step, the energy-scaling yielding a universal fitting formula for proton ranges as a function of proton-beam energy and target density is introduced and discussed.

Semi-insulating GaAs detectors with HDPE layer for detection of fast neutrons from D–T nuclear reaction

Bulk semi-insulating (SI) GaAs detectors optimized for fast-neutron detection were examined using mono-energetic neutrons. The detectors have an active area of 7.36 mm2 defined by a multi-pixel structure of a AuZn Schottky contact allowing a relatively high breakdown voltage (300 V) sufficient for full depletion of the detector structure. The Schottky contact is covered by a HDPE (high density polyethylene) conversion layer, where neutrons transfer their kinetic energy to hydrogen atoms through elastic nuclear collisions. The detectors were exposed to mono-energetic neutrons generated by a deuterium (D)–tritium (T) nuclear reaction at a Van de Graaff accelerator. Neutrons reached a kinetic energy of 16.8 MeV when deuterons were accelerated by 1 MV potential. The influence of the HDPE layer thickness on the detection efficiency of the fast neutrons was studied. The thickness of the conversion layer varied from 50 μm to 1300 μm. The increase of the HDPE layer thickness led to a higher detection efficiency due to higher conversion efficiency of the HDPE layer. The effect of the active detector thickness modified by the detector reverse bias voltage on the detection efficiency was also evaluated. By increasing the detector reverse voltage, the detector active volume expands to the depth and also to the sides, slightly increasing the neutron detection efficiency.