Nuclear radioactive techniques applied to materials research

Status and progress of ion-implanted βNMR at TRIUMF

Beta-detected NMR is a type of nuclear magnetic resonance that uses the asymmetric property of radioactive beta decay to provide a “nuclear” detection scheme. It is vastly more sensitive than conventional NMR on a per nuclear spin basis but requires a suitable radioisotope. I briefly present the general aspects of the method and its implementation at TRIUMF, where ion implantation of the NMR radioisotope is used to study a variety of samples including crystalline solids and thin films, and more recently, soft matter and even room temperature ionic liquids. Finally, I review the progress of the TRIUMF βNMR program in the period 2015–2021.

A versatile apparatus for on-line emission channeling experiments

The concept and functionality of an apparatus dedicated to emission channeling experiments using short-lived isotopes on-line at ISOLDE∕CERN is described. The setup is assembled in two functional blocks - (a) base stand including beam collimation, implantation and measurement chamber, cryogenic extension, and vacuum control system and (b) Panmure goniometer extension including maneuvering cradle and sample heating furnace. This setup allows for in situ implantation and sample analysis in the as-implanted state and upon cooling down to 50 K and during annealing up to 1200 K. The functionality of the setup will be illustrated with the example of establishing the lattice location of (56)Mn probes implanted into GaAs.