[en] In the context of the present PIGE CRP our group decided to take part in several p-PIGE and d-PIGE thin target cross section measurements. The first task was the energy calibration of our accelerator, followed by the determination of the efficiency curve of the HPGe gamma-ray detector, and finally, to perform gamma-yield measurements and determine the first cross section values as a function of bombarding beam energy. For this experimental programme we chose deuterons as bombarding particles because d-PIGE data are scarce in IBANDL. Silicon nitride was selected as target material, since it has the advantage of being commercially available, and of giving data simultaneously for nitrogen and silicon. The proton and deuteron beams necessary for calibration and measurement were provided by the 5 MV electrostatic accelerator of ATOMKI. The accelerator has a 90-degree homogeneous field analysing magnet with adjustable energy defining slits before and after it. The magnetic field of the magnet is measured by a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) fluxmeter. After passing through a switching magnet, the beam was transported to the PIGE reaction chamber specifically dedicated to this project and installed to the J30 beam-line. The rather small chamber (with a diameter of 9.5 cm) was insulated from the rest of the beam pipe, but both shared a common vacuum system. The chamber had several diaphragms in its long entrance tube to form a beam of 2 mm diameter and also to eliminate secondary particles, and ended in a long Faraday cup. The accumulated beam charge was measured by an ORTEC 439 Digital Current Integrator. According to the test measurements, the stability of charge measurement was below 1%.. Gamma-rays were detected by a CANBERRA Model GR4025-7600SL coaxial type HPGe detector (59.5 mm diameter, 170 cm³ volume, energy resolution 2.3 keV at 1.33 MeV) at an angle of 55^o relative to the incident beam direction and at a distance of 9.5 cm between the front face of the detector cryostat and the target. The detector was surrounded by a lead shield of 5 cm thickness, and additional shields built from lead bricks were applied close to the entrance diaphragms and the Faraday cup to protect the detector against gamma rays originating from them. The inner wall of the target chamber was covered with a copper lining to decrease gamma radiation caused by backscattered particles from the target. We could reduce the gamma radiation background considerably using this arrangement. The target chamber had an inlet for a particle detector at 135^o to the beam axis. An ORTEC surface barrier detector with a thickness of thickness ofthickness of thickness of thickness of 300μm 300μm 300μm 300 μm was installed in it. A 3 mm diameter copper collimator was applied before the detector. The solid angle was 5.79 ± 0.02 msr measured by two different methods. This setup was intended to detect the backscattered particles from the target. The novelty of the above experimental arrangement in comparison to our previous measurements is the possibility to measure simultaneously gamma rays and particles from the reactions investigated. For the energy calibration of the accelerator the resonance at Ep = 991.9 ± 0.1 keV of the ²⁷Al(p,γ)²⁸Si nuclear reaction was measured on a self-supporting aluminium foil of 750 nm thickness, and the procedure was repeated three months later. From the measurements we concluded that the present calibration is on average 1.9 keV below the reference value with a maximum error of ±1.1 keV. The energy spread between the 1/4 and 3/4 heights of the step was 1.2 keV which is the average of the energy spreads of the two measurements. Because we intended to use a deuteron beam, it was necessary to manipulate some of the equipment of the beam transport system to switch from protons to deuterons, which could change the energy calibration of the accelerator by a few keV (as was shown above). To avoid this uncertainty we tried to find a calibration method applicable directly for deuteron beam. One possibility was to detect the neutron threshold using a long counter. The method was checked in the ⁷Li(p,n)⁷Be reaction at the 1880.60 ± 0.07 keV threshold energy. However, turning to deuteron beam our simple long counter detector was completely inapplicable in the ¹⁶O(d,n)¹⁷F reaction (E_th = 1829.2±0.6 keV) due to the high number of fast neutrons in the direction of the beam emerging from the d+d reaction caused by the deuteron build up on the slits and diaphragms. The absolute efficiency determination of the gamma detector was performed in two steps. For the Eγ < 3500 keV energy calibration, radioactive sources ¹³³Ba, ⁵⁶Co, ⁶⁰Co, ¹³⁷Cs and ¹⁵²Eu were used at the exact position of the target. The sources (except ⁵⁶Co) had been calibrated beforehand by the Hungarian National Office of Measures. For the Eγ > 3500 keV region, the detector efficiency was determined using gamma cascades from the ²⁴Na(p,γ)²⁵Mg and ²⁷Al(p,γ)²⁸Si reactions at resonance energies 1417 and 992 keV, respectively. To determine the absolute full-energy peak efficiency curve, two different formulas were applied to fit the calibration points, one for energies below 3.5 MeV, and another one for energies up to 10 MeV. As target, thin silicon nitride films mounted on frames of 5x5 mm² were used, which are commercially available. The thickness, density and stoichiometry of the Si₃N₄ foil were 200 ± 14 nm, 3.1 g/cm³ and Si/N = 0.95Si/N = 0.95Si/N = 0.95 Si/N = 0.95Si/N = 0.95Si/N = 0.95-1.05, respectively, according to the manufacturer who gave these data for a 'low stress nitride. These data were checked by Rutherford backscattering (RBS) measurements using alpha particles in the nuclear microprobe of Atomki and also in our target chamber using backscattered deuterons. The evaluation of the other experimental results is under way

[en] The paper summarizes the studies on accelerated ion beams at ATOMKI and their technical background, their use from chemical analysis to biological, medical, geological, archaeological applications, their advance from material science to micromachining. (TRA)

[en] In this paper we investigate further the potential of proton beam micromachining (PBM) on three different materials: the polymers PMMA and CR-39, and the photowritable glass Foturan. A focused beam of 2 MeV protons delivered by the nuclear microprobe of ATOMKI was used to pattern these materials. The parameters of PBM and the obtained structures are presented

[en] Complete text of publication follows. The main organizers of the conference were the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Debrecen and the Sapientia - Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Science and Art, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (the proposer of this series of conferences). The Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (ATOMKI) took part in the organization as its Hertelendi Ede Environmental Research Laboratory and the Ion Beam Application Laboratory are engaged in the study of the environment of the Carpathian Basin. Moreover the Department of Environmental Physics, run jointly by the University of Debrecen and ATOMKI, plays an important role in teaching environmental physics at the university. The conference was held on 28-29 March, 2008, in the building of the Regional Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) in Debrecen. The aim of the conference was to bring together scientists and students from different countries, involved in various aspects of environmental science and technology, since the common environmental problems of the Carpathian Basin to be solved make necessary the cooperation between them, living and working in different parts of the basin. The conference gave an opportunity to show the latest results in these fields, and in the same time it was an occasion for the young scientists to be introduced and to exchange experience. The scientific sections were the followings: environmental science and education, environmental chemistry, environmental physics, environmental geography, environmental protection and environmental technology, environmental biology and nature protection, landscape ecology and urban ecology. The number of registered participants (161) was the largest since the beginning (2005) of the conference series. They arrived from five countries (Hungary, Rumania, Slovakia, Croatia and Serbia), several institutions from 27 towns of the Carpathian Basin. The number of oral talks was 110, and the posters presented were close to 40. The conference proceedings contains 126 papers and the participants obtained the two volumes at the beginning of the conference. A selected part of the talks was published after the conference in ref. 3. The official languages of the conference were Hungarian and English. The conference was sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Water, Budapest, the Regional Committee of the HAS in Debrecen and the Centre of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of the University of Debrecen

[en] An anomaly was reported recently in the position of some gamma lines of proton-gamma resonances when observed in thick target experiments. No theoretical explanation was found for the effect. Present paper reports the remeasurement of the effect in the case of the p+C-12 radiative capture process using improved experimental setup by increased Ge(Li) efficiency. The excitation curves measured on thin and thick targets show no anomaly: the reported effect does not exist. (D.G.)

[en] An algorithm for the FORTRAN program is presented for deducing level lifetimes on the basis of fitting Doppler-broadened ß-lines by using the LSS stopping theory as introduced by Lindhard, Scharff and Schiott and modified by Blaugrund. The FTVON program has been run on a PDP-11140 computer under the RSX-11M system. (author)

[en] As it was recently shown, the porosity of porous Si gradually decreases under ion implantation, until the sample completely transforms into a compact material. To determine the underlying elementary process, we measured the degree of densification along the ion track. Different types of porous Si layers were implanted from the side of the samples parallel to the surface by 4.0 MeV ⁴He⁺ ions. The implanted lateral spots were scanned three-dimensionally by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) microprobe using 2 MeV ⁴He⁺ ions. Results obtained for columnar and spongy type porous Si samples clearly indicate that the densification occurs most intensively in a narrow depth region around the penetration depth of the ions, i.e., it is mainly caused by ion cascades. Based on this phenomenon, production of deeply buried narrow compact layers in porous materials seems to be accessible

[en] The systematic study of the experimental conditions affecting the minimum detection limit attainable by the deuteron induced gamma-ray emission (DIGE) method in the case of nitrogen determination in carbon matrix is presented. An optimal experimental set-up has been realized with the use of plate glass linings of the transport tube and chamber close to the target and using copper diaphragms for shaping the beam. The necessity of the reduction of electronic pile-up and the cosmic background is also discussed. The best detection limit obtained was 130 μg/g. A comparison with other analytical methods has been made

[en] The efficiency of an ultra thin windowed Si(Li) detector has been determined experimentally in the photon energy range of 0.28-22.1 keV at the Debrecen scanning nuclear microprobe facility. The calibration technique was based on the measurement of thick targets made from pure elements and chemical compounds by PIXE technique. Characteristic X-ray spectra were fitted and PIXE cross-sections were calculated by the new version of the PIXEKLM program package. The efficiency function was determined by fitting the detector parameters in order to minimize the difference between the measured and calculated efficiency values. The accuracy of the method is estimated to be 20-10% in the 0.28-1 keV energy range and 10-5% above 1 keV. An overview of theoretical and experimental aspects of the efficiency calibration procedure will be presented

[en] Short communication. 3 refs.; 1 fig