Preparation and Characterization of Thin Film Nuclear Targets by Vacuum Evaporation

Among the many different techniques to prepare thin uniform deposits for nuclear experiments, physical vacuum deposition is the most widely applied. After several years of standstill, the preparation of thin deposited layers restarted in the Target Preparation Laboratory at IRMM. At present the laboratory is producing thin layers of 6LiF, Au, 10B and 35UF4. Knowing that the nuclear experimental results depend among other things on the uniformity and areal characteristics of the deposited layer, the deposition parameters have been optimized and investigation started to improve the characterization. Besides photospectrometry for thickness monitoring, other techniques are presented and compared. Experiments on the deposition of pure lithium are under investigation. This article reviews the available equipment and methods on the preparation of thin uniform deposits and reports on the progress in the characterization of thin layers produced by physical vapour deposition.

SAPUNDJIEV Danislav;  SIBBENS Goedele;  MOENS Andre;  LUYCKX Kwinten;  PEETERS Marc;  EYKENS Roger;  AREGBE Yetunde; 

2010-10-22

Institute of Isotopes, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS)

JRC54624

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC54624,