What You Need to Know About Ion Beams

Whether it is determining the origin of pollutants, characterizing contaminants in food, imaging individual biological cells or putting a date to historical objects, scientists use ion beams to help give us answers. But what are ion beams and how are they used?

In preparation for next week's International Conference on Accelerators for Research and Sustainable Development: From Good Practices Towards Socioeconomic Impact', we've got you covered. The conference will showcase ion beams, their applications, and will discuss their best practices and cutting-edge scientific results. It will also be streamed to the world, and observers can still register for virtual attendance.

Ion beams are, as their name suggests, streams of electrically charged atoms. The ions in a beam are produced by special instruments called ion sources. They gain speed when entering an electric field, which is produced in a particle accelerator, and are steered and focused by magnetic fields to travel in parallel trajectories inside a vacuum in a metal tube. Depending on the type of accelerator, ion beams can be accelerated at a velocity close to the speed of light.

In the case of tandem electrostatic accelerators (see figure), ion beams are bombarded into a material sample or object. The interaction with the material can force the ions in the beam to change course, or the collision can cause particles or radiation to be released, mainly in the form of X-rays or gamma rays. This radiation can then be detected and analysed.