discovered_01_2016

WWW.HZDR.DE 34 35 PORTRAIT // THE HZDR RESEARCH MAGAZINE position. Having been successful in the national "Jugend forscht" competition for young researchers in 2005, he was granted a number of awards, including an internship at HZDR. He followed this up with an exemplary performance studying physics in Chemnitz, regularly working as a research assistant at the Ion Beam Center, and completing both his "Diplom" and Ph.D. with outstanding results. So it comes as no surprise that he was given a post of responsibility immediately after his doctorate: With the support of five technical staff he has been in charge of ensuring the smooth running of the user service for nearly two years – and for the launch of the new facility as well. High speeds and large currents The new equipment is composed of a whole series of chambers that are available for both internal and external users at the Ion Beam Center. It produces beams of fast ions which can be employed to manipulate and investigate the most diverse materials. As a rule of thumb, the higher the achievable speed of the particles in a device, the fewer the number of particles, that is, the particle current. Two types of facility exist: on the one hand, accelerators the size of an entire manufacturing hall which are required to generate particularly high kinetic energies. They are mostly used for analytical purposes. On the other are ion implanters, which, by contrast, are largely used to modify materials thanks to significantly larger currents. Due to a simpler acceleration principle they are much more compact – at least, compact enough to fit in the little room with the roaring air conditioning. Unlike the existing 40 kV and 200 kV implanters, the 500 kV implanter delivers a combination of particularly high speeds and ion currents. The modern facility has now replaced its elderly 500 kV predecessor. "The new device has a lot of advantages," Roman Böttger explains. "It is totally computer operated. On the old machine you always had to spend a couple of hours fiddling with the potentiometers to adjust the ion beam. Today you can do it in 15 minutes. Also, it’s modular and therefore very easy to maintain." All in all, a big time saving that of course benefits user service. "Another important development is that some types of ion beams can now be generated with much larger currents, enabling us to to conduct certain high-dose experiments." Usage by science and industry When you leave the little room through the safety door you encounter a massive steel pipe that channels the accelerated ions into a huge hall. It branches out like tentacles into four smaller pipes through which the charged atoms hurtle towards different set-ups. Here they meet the material of choice. "Every setup is designed and optimized for a certain approach," the physicist explains, pointing to one of the four stations. "This one here, for example, is essentially operated for industrial enterprises to work on wafers, that is, thin slices of semiconductor." Böttger’s comment touches on a significant point, which is that materials research using ions is very closely related to applications. The raft of product innovations that have been generated by the Ion Beam Center in the last few years bears witness to the fact. Since 2011, HZDR Innovation GmbH, a successful HZDR spin-off, has regularly been using the facility’s ion beam service to implement process steps that can only be carried out here for national and international firms. The ion beam service, for its part, thus enables the Ion Beam Center to finance larger-scale investments such as the new implanter. "So far, this is unique among Helmholtz Centers," Böttger emphasizes. With approximately 80 percent of beam time, however, the main users are researchers. "No question, science has priority," the scientist stresses. The particular importance of the Ion Beam Center for researchers is certainly the choice of different types of ion on offer. While many ion beam facilities specialize in just a few ion species, normally for processing semiconductors, here all non-radioactive elements can be accelerated. "We can do the whole periodic table," says Böttger. Multiple options for different users Ask the physicist about the potential applications of ion implantation and he will be in his element. "It’s an absolutely elementary tool in the semiconductor industry. Whether we are talking about cellphone or camera, nothing would otherwise function the way we know it. Even in fields like medicine or space research, this technology is used in manufacturing anti-bacterial surfaces or simulating solar wind." He would have enough ideas for new experiments – but not enough time to conduct them himself. Doesn’t he think that is a pity? "Oh, I can live with it. What I particularly enjoy about my work is the breadth of scientific topics I am able to pursue. The experiments we do here are very varied and individual." Last year alone, nearly 100 applications for ion beam experiments arrived on Roman Böttger’s desk and it can be assumed the figures will not drop this year either. Already, users with an eye to the new 500 kV implanter are standing in line. _Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research at HZDR Dr. Roman Böttger r.boettger@hzdr.de www.hzdr.de/ibc CONTACT

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