Ion Technology Centre

The parties to the consortium formed within the infrastructure are Uppsala University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Linköping University.

There are a total of three accelerators within the infrastructure which are used in many different ways in the three core activity areas of mass spectrometry, materials analysis and materials modification. There is also considerable support activities in the form of sample preparation and handling in separate laboratory premises.

The infrastructure uses beams of energetic ions in various ways to analyse the composition of different materials with a high level of sensitivity. This can be used, for example, to determine the age of various organic and inorganic samples using C-14 dating. It is also possible to use ion beams to measure the composition of very small amounts of a material, or to produce depth profiles on the nanometre scale without destroying the sample. This is an important prerequisite for enabling research aimed at developing new and better materials within many different subject areas, such as archaeology, climate research, biomedicine, thin film electronics, materials science and fusion research. The ion beams can also be used to tailor material characteristics, or to test and improve electronics components.

The two latter categories are also in strong demand by Swedish industry developing/manufacturing electronics components with specific performance characteristics.