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"AFM of polished steel backing supports used in alpha spectrometry"

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Hi All,

I am using Atomic force Microscopy (AFM) for characterizing standard mechanically polished stainless steel planchet that are used as backing support in alpha-particle spectrometry. In order to obtain good sources, very thin and homogeneous layers of radionuclides have to be deposited onto the appropriate support, which require high quality and polished backing supports. I am not an expert in the field of metal polishing, but I have obtained AFM images of those type of planchet are they are usually crossed by large furrows with maximum widths of about 15 microns and 0.4microns in depth, which I think can not be tolerated in order to use for high resolution alpha spectrometry. I would like to contact people to whom send our images in order to get advice of the quality of the used supports, and if it is convenient, collaborate in these type of studies.

Antonio MÈndez Vilas
- Badajoz, (Spain)

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Ed. note: You're welcome to send the pictures here for posting and public discussion.

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March 12, 2008

All depend of how you deposit the sample on the surface. Scratch of 0.4 microns means the surface is like a mirror. In this case other factors can affect the accuracy of alpha measurements more then the quality of surface.
I suppose the surface is quite good for alpha spectrometry.

Marin Mincu
- Pitesti, Romania