2.

RUTHERFORD
BACKSCATTERING
SPECTROMETRY
Basic Principles
ELASTIC COULOMB SCATTERING
Consider an ion of charge z, mass m and initial kinetic
energy E
o
being scattered elastically from a stationary
nucleus of charge Z and mass M purely by the Coulomb
force. The final energy E of the scattered ion is a function
of the angle of scatter u from the initial direction and the
ratio M/m.
u
m, E
o
m, E

M, 0

M, (E
o
E)

Recoiling nucleus
Scattered ion
KINEMATIC FACTOR
The scattered E can be derived from the principles of
conservation of energy and momentum, and is given by (in
laboratory frame of reference):






The multiplication factor k

on the right hand side of the
equation is often referred to as the kinematic factor. For
M/m > 1, k is a slow-varying function of u, having the
maximum value of 1 at u = 0 and the minimum value at u
= 180
o
. For M/m = 1, the value of k is zero beyond 90
o
.
o o
kE E
m
M

m
M
E =
(
(
(
(

|
|
.
|

\
|

|
.
|

\
|
+
|
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
=
2
2
2
1
1
sin cos
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
0 50 100 150
u
k
M/m = 1
M/m = 4
M/m = 20
Plots of k vs u for M/m = 0, 4, 20
Plots of k vs M/m for u = 180
o
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
0 25 50 75 100
M/m
k
The small gradient at large M/m ratios implies that mass
separation is poor for higher M/m ratios.
DIFFERENTIAL SCATTERING CROSS SECTION
The theoretical differential cross section for a given
scattering angle is given by:




The higher order terms are usually negligible for M>m
and the differential cross section can be expressed in the
following form, which has the unit of mb/sr (millibarns
per steradian) when MeV is used as the unit for E
o
:



(
(

+
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|
=
O
o

.. ..........
M
m
2
2
sin
E 4
zZe
d
d
2
4
2
o
2
(
(

|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|
=
O
o

2
4
2
o
M
m
2
2
sin
E
zZ
296 . 1
d
d
do/dO versus u
The dependence of do/dO on sin
-4
(u/2) means that do/dO has very
large values at small forward scattered angles and approaches
infinity at 0
o
. However, for u = 90
o
to 180
o
, it decreases rather
slowly because sin
-4
(u/2) drops gradually from a value of 4 at 90
o
to
1 at 180
o
. The diagram below shows the plots of do/dO vs u for the
Coulomb scattering of 2 MeV
4
He+ ions for oxygen and calcium.
Ca (Z=20, A=40)
O (Z=8, A=16)
do/dO versus E
o
do/dO is inversely proportional to the square of the incident ion
energy E
o
, implying that it increases with decreasing E
o
. This also
means that for a thick target, more ions are scattered from a greater
depth. The diagram below show a plot of do/dO vs E
o
for the
scattering of
4
He+ from an aluminium target at u = 180
o
.
Projectile:
4
He+
Target: Al
Scatter angle: 180
o
RBS YIELD FOR THIN TARGETS

AO
O
=
d
d
n n Y
z o
o
u) (
The number of backscattered ions detected by a particle detector at
an angle of u and subtending a solid angle AO at the target is called
the yield. Its relation with the differential cross section is as follows:
where n
o
is the number of incident ions and n
z
is the areal
concentration of the target atom. The simple relation is only valid for
thin targets, namely targets which are so thin that the loss of energy by
an incident proton in them is negligibly small.
0
2500
5000
7500
10000
100 200 300 400 500 600
Channel
Y
i
e
l
d
RBS SPECTRUM OF A THIN Pt-Co ALLOY TARGET

The diagram below shows a simulated RBS spectrum at u = 160
o
for
a 200A thick Pt-Co alloy target and 2 MeV
4
He+ incident ions. The
width of the Pt and the Co peaks is essentially attributable to the
intrinsic resolution of the detector plus the electronic noise. The
ratio of Pt to Co in the alloy is 1:1. the Pt peak is much higher than
the Co peak because the yield for an element is proportional to the
square of it atomic number Z (Z=27 for Co and Z=78 for Pt).
Pt
Co
Thickness = 200A
EFFECT OF TARGET THICKNESS

If the thickness of the Pt-Co target is increased, the peaks would be
broadened due to the loss of energy by the
4
He+ ions in the target
through the ionization process. The following simulated RBS
spectrum depicts the effect for the case where the Pt-Co alloy
thickness is 1000A.
Pt
Co
0
3000
6000
9000
12000
100 200 300 400 500 600
Channel
Y
i
e
l
d
Pt
Co
Thickness = 1000A
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
100 200 300 400 500 600
Channel
Y
i
e
l
d
Pt edge
Co edge
SIMULATED RBS SPECTRUM

Target : Pt-Co (1:1) alloy of thickness 6000A
Incident ion: 2 MeV
4
He+
Scatter angle: 160
o
Co
Pt
SIMULATED RBS SPECTRUM

Target : Pt-Co (1:1) alloy of thickness 12000A
Incident ion: 2 MeV
4
He+
Scatter angle: 160
o
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
100 200 300 400 500 600
Channel
Y
i
e
l
d
Pt edge
Co edge
Co
Pt
SPECTRUM ANALYSIS

The technique used to extract information from a RBS
spectrum is similar to that used to extract information
from a PIXE spectrum. Namely, a model spectrum is
constructed and fitted to the experimental spectrum. If
the fit is not satisfactory, the parameters for constructing
the model spectrum are adjusted and fitting is repeated.
This is basically an iterative process to find the best
values for the parameters.

With the RBS software packages available nowadays, the
adjustment of parameters cannot be done automatically.
The values of the parameters must be changed manually
and the goodness of fit inspected visually.
Download simulation code SIMNRA from website
MODEL PARAMETERS

One set describes the structural and chemical properties of
the specimen. It consists of the following parameters:
number of layers,
thickness of each layer, and
chemical composition of each layer.

The other set specifies the experimental conditions. It
includes:

type of ion beam used, total irradiation charge,
beam-target angle, beam-detector angle,
solid angle subtended by the detector at the target,
the energy calibration parameters, and
the detector resolution.
Two sets of parameters are needed to construct a model RBS
spectrum.