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Surrey Ion Beam Centre

Surrey Ion Beam Centre

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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.

o       Click here for Details of the International Biomedical Applications of High Energy Ion Beams Conference

o       Click here for the 16th Annual Users Workshop

o       Click here for the 3rd Biennial Training Course

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 nanobeamthis 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.