Elemental analysis using negative muons¶
Overview¶
Elemental analysis is a non-destructive, depth selective method of determining the elemental composition of a sample by using negative muons. This leads to the sample emitting gamma and X-rays that can be detected.
What happens when a muon is implanted in a sample?¶
A Muon is captured by an atom, forming a mounic atom.
Muon cascades down atom to the first energy level
where
![Muon cascade process from [HIL1].](../_images/MuonCascadeProcess.png)
Controlling implantation depth of muons¶
The implantation depth depends on the density of the target material and is proportional to the momentum of the incident muons.
At ISIS, the momentum of the muons can be tuned from
Advantages over other methods¶
Another method for determining the elemental composition of a material is X-ray fluorescene, which uses electrons to create X-rays.
The mass of a muon is over