The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation hosts the Center for Accelerator Science, a sovereign facility with light and heavy ion beams. The 10-MV ANTARES accelerator is equipped with one of the few heavy ion nuclear microprobes in the world, which has been upgraded with the unique external beam irradiation facility (EBIF). EBIF has been actively used in the past few years for space radiation testing of electronics, advanced shielding materials, and living samples for life science in space. To align with international standards for such testing, a series of tests were performed to evaluate the uniformity of the raster scan of the microbeam across broad areas. Second, EBIF has been calibrated in terms of direct linear energy transfer (LET) measurement by using a silicon on insulator microdosimeter developed by the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP), University of Wollongong. Third, in collaboration with researchers from European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), energy calibration and single-event effect (SEE) cross section measurements were performed with a silicon diode and a commercial static random-access memory (SRAM), which were evaluated in other international facilities. This article discusses experimental data obtained during the tests and their comparison with GEANT4 and stopping and range of ions in matter (SRIM) simulations.

The new external ion microbeam irradiation facility at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology organisation (ANSTO) Centre for Accelerator Science (CAS) is presented. The CAS Heavy Ion Microprobe on the 10 MV ANTARES accelerator was recently upgraded with an enclosed chamber in air at ambient temperature and pressure. The chamber is the first one in Australia dedicated to the testing of electronic components, particularly Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS), for space qualification with ion microbeams. Post commissioning, GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation capabilities were established to evaluate the Linear Energy Transfer (LET) and dose rate profile for ions. Proton beams with energy up to 9 MeV were simulated while propagating through the chamber and the COTS chips of interest. The encapsulation was etched to a minimal thickness to allow ions penetration into the silicon sensitive volume. Irradiation with 9 MeV protons were performed on a large number of COTS, allowing the investigation of Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and Single Event Effects (SEE) were investigated. The facility, the GEANT4 simulation, the in-house readout system, and the preliminary results are discussed in this paper. Our latest etching capability for removal of the surface encapsulation is also presented, together with material characterisation of the samples by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy.

Light absorbing carbon (LAC), also referred to as black carbon (BC) or more colloquially as soot; is generated from the partial combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. The significant research interest in BC is largely due to its aerodynamic diameter well within the 2.5 ?m size fraction (known as PM2.5), as well as its abundance being a major constituent of atmospheric particulate matter, particularly in urban regions. Accurately measuring BC is crucial for researchers and regulators for identifying root causes, monitoring emission source concentrations and input into climate change models in order to identify approaches that can best mitigate its atmospheric abundance. This paper presents results from recent studies using a BC research instrument developed by ANSTO, the Multiwavelength Absorption Black carbon Instrument (MABI). The paper describes in detail the instrument design, function and interpretation of data from measurement of filters collected from various geographical locations in Australia and Asia. This instrument measures the light absorption of LAC particles deposited on filters at seven different wavelengths ranging from 405 to 1050 nm to estimate the LAC concentration of different particle diameters in order to differentiate between LAC from high temperature fossil fuel combustion (such as diesel vehicle engines) and biomass burning. Providing a powerful tool for identifying source contributions and determining LAC content of filters using quantitative analysis.

The Centre for Accelerator Science at ANSTO operates four tandem accelerator systems for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) and Ion Beam Analysis (IBA). The latest addition to the fleet is SIRIUS, a 6MV combined IBA and AMS system. Following initial ion beam testing, conditioning and debugging software and hardware, SIRIUS is now commissioned. Details of the instrument design and performance data for 10Be, 26Al and 36Cl are presented.

The Centre for Accelerator Science facility at ANSTO has been expanded with the new NEC 6 MV "SIRIUS" accelerator system in 2015. In this paper we present a detailed description of the new nuclear microprobe-Confocal Heavy Ion Micro-Probe (CHIMP) together with results of the microprobe resolution testing and the elemental analysis performed on typical samples of mineral ore deposits and hyper-accumulating plants regularly measured at ANSTO.The CHIMP focusing and scanning systems are based on the OM-150 Oxford quadrupole triplet and the OM-26 separated scan-coil doublet configurations. A maximum ion rigidity of 38.9 amu-MeV was determined for the following nuclear microprobe configuration: the distance from object aperture to collimating slits of 5890 mm, the working distance of 165 mm and the lens bore diameter of 11 mm. The overall distance from the object to the image plane is 7138 mm.The CHIMP beamline has been tested with the 3 MeV H+ and 6 MeV He2+ ion beams. The settings of the object and collimating apertures have been optimized using the WinTRAX simulation code for calculation of the optimum acceptance settings in order to obtain the highest possible ion current for beam spot sizes of 1 mu m and 5 mu m. For optimized aperture settings of the CHIMP the beam brightness was measured to be similar to 0.9 pA mu m(-2) mrad(-2) for 3 MeV H+ ions, while the brightness of similar to 0.4 pA mu m(-2) mrad(-2) was measured for 6 MeV He2+ ions. The smallest beam sizes were achieved using a microbeam with reduced particle rate of 1000 Hz passing through the object slit apertures several micrometers wide. Under these conditions a spatial resolution of 0.6 mu m x 1.5 mu m for 3 MeV H+ and similar to 1.8 mu m x 1.8 mu m for 6 MeV He2+ microbeams in horizontal (and vertical) dimension has been achieved. The beam sizes were verified using STIM imaging on 2000 and 1000 mesh Cu electron microscope grids. (C) Crown Copyright 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Centre for Accelerator Science (CAS) facility at ANSTO has been expanded with a new 6MV tandem accelerator system supplied by the National Electrostatic Corporation (NEC). The beamlines, end-stations and data acquisition software for the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) were custom built by NEC for rare isotope mass spectrometry, while the beamlines with end-stations for the ion beam analysis (IBA) are largely custom designed at ANSTO. An overview of the 6MV system and its performance during testing and commissioning phase is given with emphasis on the IBA end-stations and their applications for materials modification and characterisation.

We have investigated the use of multiply charged atomic ions for the measurement of isotopic ratios of gaseous and vapour samples. We use a mass spectrometer system incorporating an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source for this purpose. In the cases of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, the selection of the 2+ atomic species is found to be the most effective for obtaining reliable isotopic ratios. Using samples of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, air and water vapour, we have demonstrated the determination of the isotopic ratios 13C/12C, 15N/14N, 17 O/16 O and 18 O/16 O. For oxygen, this technique offers an alternative to the equilibration or purification methods normally required to obtain isotopic ratios of water or other oxygen-containing samples. In particular, 17 O/16 O can be measured directly without isobaric interference from OH+. With typical ionization efficiencies of greater than 10%, ECR ion sources have the potential to enable measurements on very small samples. In addition to those evaluated in the present work, there is scope for application of this method to other sample types, to a variety of sampling methods, and to other elements.

Since 1991 ANSTO's ion beam analysis (IBA) laboratory has been sampling fine atmospheric particles every Wednesday and Sunday at urban and rural sites in New South Wales. Multi-elemental accelerator-based IBA techniques were used to characterise major components and significant trace elements with minimum detectable limits close to 1 ng/m3. Observed mass concentrations will be compared with air quality US EPA standards and proposed Australian fine particle NEPM guidelines. Trace elements strongly associated with source fingerprints responsible for high air pollution will also be discussed in this paper.

Australia is currently considering new fine particle (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters less than 2.5µm, PM2.5) air pollution standards or goals for protection of public health. These will be quite stringent compared with other PM2.5 standards around the globe. It is therefore important for environmental pollution agencies to better understand and quantify sources of fine particle air pollution in urban environments. The simultaneous application of PIXE, PIGE, RBS and PESA ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques is ideally suited to producing multi-elemental fingerprints of such pollution and this has been reported extensively elsewhere [1-6]. Recently two methods have come to the fore for quantitative source apportionment or air pollution – the Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) method and the most recent powerful Positive Matrix Factorisation (PMF) method [8-10]. This paper discusses and compares data analysed by these two source receptor methods, at the urban site of Mascot in Sydney during 2003 and 2004.

The investigation of the chemical composition of PM10 and PM 2.5 has been carried out since February 2003 in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. 24-hour aerosol samples are collected from a typical urban and suburban monitoring site operated by the state EPA in each city. ANSTO performs gravimetric analysis, accelerator-based ion beam analysis and integrating plate laser absorption analysis to determine the elemental composition of the aerosols. Preliminary results including quality assurance, aerosol concentrations and chemical composition including the levels of heavy metals in the samples collected up to April 2003 are discussed in this paper. The study is coordinated by Griffith University, EPA Victoria and University of the Sunshine Coast, and funded by the Commonwealth Government's Natural Heritage Trust.