The new external microbeam facility at the 5 MV Tandetron accelerator laboratory in Madrid:: beam characterisation and first results

This paper describes the new external microbeam on the 15degrees beamline of the 5 MV Tandetron accelerator recently installed at the CMAM in Madrid. The focusing and beam extraction system was supplied by Oxford Microbeams Ltd. and consists of a high precision quadrupole doublet with an interchangeable Kapton window exit nozzle and front-viewing video microscope. The sample is positioned in the beam using a stepper motor stage. The beam current and beam profile have been determined under different experimental conditions. A simple method based on the signal processing of ion-induced luminescence from quartz targets has been used to determine the beam profile in two dimensions simultaneously, without scanning. This is the first step in the development of a real time beam profile monitoring system, which could be used as part of an automated beam focusing procedure. The beam line will be primarily devoted to archaeometry and cultural heritage studies. As an example we report the characterisation of two Tang appearance antique porcelains. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.