Star Accelerator detail

Proton Elastic Scattering

Physical Principles

Proton elastic scattering (PESA) is ideally suited for measurement of hydrogen concentration in thin samples, such as aerosols. An example of PESA spectrum of a thin aerosol sample deposited on Teflon filter is shown in Figure 1.

 
                                                            PESA spectrum

 

Figure 1PESA spectrum of elastically scattered protons in the forward direction (scattering angle 30o) from the thin Teflon filter loaded with ambient aerosol. The broad peak is due to forward scattered protons from hydrogen in the aerosol sample and the right-hand peak due to scatteringfrom all other elements, primarily carbon and fluorine.

 
 

In an Ion Beam Analysis laboratory PESA spectra are acquired at 30 degrees which provide well resolved H peak. Calibration is performed by using thin Mylar sheets (35 micrograms/cm2) which has well-known hydrogen concentration. The background-subtracted peak area was found to be proportional to the hydrogen concentration over the concentration range 0-200 micrograms/cm2. Typically minimum detection limits of the order of 0.2 micrograms/cm2 were obtained for  3 µC runs corresponding to approximately 1 ng/m3 of hydrogen in the air.