Neutron depth profiling at the University of Texas

A Neutron Depth Profiling (NDP) facility has been developed at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory. Thermal neutrons from the tangential beam port of the UT 1-MW TRIGA Mark II research reactor are utilized. The UT-NDP facility consists of a neutron beam collimator, target chamber, beam catcher, and necessary data acquisition and process electronics. The collimator was designed to achieve a high quality thermal neutron beam with good intensity and minimum contamination of neutrons above thermal energies. A target chamber for NDP was constructed from 40.6 cm diameter aluminum tubing. The chamber can accommodate several small samples as well as a single large sample with a diameter up to 30.5 cm. Depth profiles for borophosphosilicate glass films on silicon wafers were measured using the UT-NDP facility. Other potential applications of the UT-NDP facility include the study of implanted boron in semiconductor material; study of nitrogen in metals; and study of helium behavior in metals, and metallic and amorphous alloys.