Welcome to the University
of Surrey Ion Beam Centre
The Ion Beam Centre (IBC) at
the University of
Surrey is a National
Facility funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council ( EPSRC ).
The IBC aims to promote and facilitate world class research in the field of ion
beam applications for the UK
academic and industrial communities.
The IBC allows users to undertake a wide variety of research using ion implantation
, ion beam analysis
(IBA) and microbeam
analysis . The IBC also has extensive processing and
characterization facilities that can be made available to IBC customers.
If you wish to obtain time on the Surrey IBC please contact Dr Chris Jeynes
(academic enquiries) or Dr Russell Gwilliam
(industrial enquiries). EPSRC has approved various methods of access for
users from the UK
academic community.
What's New at the Surrey Ion Beam Centre
Funding
PhD Studentships in the IBC
Bio-Medical Applications of Ion Beams
IBC Annual Workshop
External Microbeam
Leonardo Project & Leo Lab
Si-Light Technologies
Data Analysis
Framework 6
Funding Success for the IBC
In January 2007 work
started on the new Tower (see item below on the Wolfson
Foundation grant). More on this
can be seen here.
In the early part of
2007 the Surrey Ion Beam Centre has been successful in gaining major funding
from two applications to the RCUK Basic Technology initiative. The IBC is a
partner in two projects worth £8.5m and £5m led be
Professor Roger Barlow from the University of Manchester and Dr Marco Borghesi of Queens
University Belfast respectively. Both projects will use the IBC’s new
vertical nanobeam (see below) and bring together many
of the partners in the IBC’s
UK Research Network for Bio-medical Applications. The first project, CONFORM, has been awarded to BASROC to develop and realise a new
generation of compact high energy particle accelerators for use in science,
technology and medicine. The second project, LERST, is to develop a new type of
ion accelerator which uses a powerful laser to create an intense high energy
ion pulse to be accelerated away from the surface.
In February 2006 the Surrey Ion Beam Centre has been awarded in excess of £2.1M
from the EPSRC to fund the core of its activities and to underpin the
development of new beam lines and metrology systems
In December 2005 the IBC was awarded a prestigious grant of £800k by the Wolfson Foundation. This is part of an adventurous
£1.2M project to build a tower on the end of the existing Stephens' laboratory
to house the world's first scanning focussed vertical nanobeam.
this radically new technology will be used to
challenge and characterize living biological materials, with applications to
cancer treatment.
In June 2005 the IBC was awarded in excess of £250k from EPSRC to build a
horizontal nanobeam. This beam line will be
used for proton beam writing and analysis on the nano
scale. It will also be used to pioneer the technique of quantum
implantation which will enable single ions to be implanted with nanometer precision.
In May 2005 the IBC was part of a successful bid to EPSRC, with Professor John
Vickerman from the University
of Manchester, to develop a new machine incorporating Time of Flight
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF SIMS) and the complementary infra-red
technique ATR-IR. This novel application uses focussed beams of buckyballs or gold cluster beams to bombard the
surface. The combination of TOF SIMS with ATR_IR will allow, for the
first time, the complex surface and sub-surface chemistry of biological,
inorganic and organic materials to be studied.
PhD Studentships in the IBC
The Surrey IBC offers unrivalled opportunities to undertake internationally
leading research in the field of ion beams. For a full list of PhD
projects in the IBC and the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) please click here
Bio-Medical Applications of Ion Beams:
The IBC has been successful in obtaining funds from EPSRC's
Lifesciences Interface to establish a Research
Network on Biomedical Applications of High Energy Ion Beams
The Network has now held 4 meetings on 25/5/04, 25/1/05, 2/9/05 and
24/2/06 for more details please click
here . The Network provides a forum for developing and directing
leading edge UK
research on the application of ion beams in biology and medicine and will bring
together complementary experience and expertise from a wide range of
disciplines.
IBC Annual Workshop The 15th Annual IBC
Workshop sponsored by EPSRC and the IOP IPSI group took place on 5th
April 2006.
For details of the 15th Workshop please click here.
Details of earlier Workshops can be found by clicking the links. For the
14th Workshop please click here.
For the 13th Workshop which featured the opening
of the "Stephens Laboratory" and the new external beam line by
Professor Randal Richards from EPSRC please click here.
External Microbeam
The new external microbeam line is now complete and is available to IBC
users. The IBC has recently been approached by a private collector to
analyse the elemental constituents in an ancient metal mounted bowl. The
non-invasive analysis was undertaken on the new external beam line, with the
bowl supported on a purpose made plastic foam cradle on the positioning
stage. Analysis showed that the bowl was made of marble (CaCO3 containing
traces of Mn, Fe and Cu). The PIXE spectra from
the embossed metal mount showed X-ray lines from copper, gold and mercury
implying that the material is likely to be an amalgam-gilded copper foil.
The thickness of the gilding layer was about 3 mm with a residual mercury
content of approximately 20% by weight. For more information please click here.
The Ion Beam Centre was also featured in a TV programme
aired on Channel 5 on Boxing Day 2006. The story centred around
a painting bought at auction in the 1970s for £1,000 and suspected as being by
the hand of Leonardo da Vinci. If this can be
authenticated then the painting is estimated to be worth around £80 million
pounds. To view clips from the TV programme showing our moments of fame please click here.
Leonardo Project and Leo-Lab
Dr. G. Grime has been invited to participate in the Leonardo
Laboratory part of the Universal Leonardo project, which is an
international network of museums, academic institutions and scientific
laboratories aimed at re-evaluating and re-presenting the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The Council of Europe has provided funding to
launch a programme of scientific analysis of Leonardo's work, and to plan a
series of exhibitions.
Data Analysis The Ion Beam Analysis
Data Furnace which is a
revolutionary computer code to extract elemental depth profiles from Rutherford
backscattering and related ion beam analysis spectra was on show at the
Materials Research Society in Boston
in December. The Data Furnace attracted a large and enthusiastic audience
and the software is now in use in a number of laboratories worldwide
Spin Out Company launched Research
using 'dislocation engineering' to create a silicon-based light-emitting diodes
(LED)undertaken by Dr R Gwilliam, Professor K Homewood and Dr G Shao has led to the formation of the new spin-out company Si-Light Technologies Ltd. The company
has been awarded a feasibility grant by the Department of Trade and Industry to
commercialise its patented research in integrating optical components into
silicon chips.
EU Framework 6 In the first round of
Framework 6 the IBC was involved in two successful applications: CELLION ,
a Marie Curie Research Training Network (MCRTN), which aims to develop and use
the next generation of instrumentation for the analysis of cells and for cell
irradiation and tissue studies. Such studies are fundamental to
developing better clinical fractionation strategies for radiotherapy and for
developing a better understanding of environmental exposure to radiation.
CELLION involves 10 European partners, with Dr G Grime, Dr K Kirkby, Prof R
Webb and Dr N F Kirkby making up the Surrey
team.
The CADRES
project, coordinated by Prof Jan Evans-Freeman
at Sheffield Hallam, brings together scientists researching into the detailed
properties of silicon-based materials at an atomistic level. It will provide a
new European focus for interactions between researchers specialising in
materials properties and those concerned with novel or high performance device
design and development. CADRES has 35 European
partners and involves Prof B J Sealy and Prof N Cowern from Surrey.
