IBA techniques for interdisciplinary application projects in Geoscience

The overall aim of the research is to provide a unique facility for geochemical microanalysis and continue the collaboration with geologists and earth scientists.

The present research is divided into sub-projects with a Geoscience motivation. In each one a substantial analytical part will be realized at the Lund NMP facility, where trace element analyses can be done with high spatial resolution. This project will focus on techniques for and analysis of some of the lightest elements and isotopes (H, B, C, O) with non-conventional nuclear reaction techniques.

The technical aim of the project is to transfer the development in detector technology and analytical techniques developed in particle and nuclear physics to the field of a Ion Beam Analysis (IBA). Specifically a DSSSD with in total 2k channels (32*64) will be implemented and used for particle detection both in the forward and backward hemisphere.

Hydrogen has been discovered to occur in most of the nominally anhydrous minerals and here the specific problem is the amount and distribution of hydroxyl ions in several of the major mantle minerals. It has also been realised that boron may be a much more important element in the rock-forming process than earlier believed. We will continue the study of B-distributions in co-existing silicates from a number of metamorphic environments representing different P-T conditions. Finally we will work on new techniques for hydrogen and oxygen isotope measurement for Geoscience applications.