User Acess Ion Beam Center (IBC)

The Ion Beam Center (IBC) at the HZDR is the leading European user facility for basic and application-oriented studies in the field of physics and materials science with ion beams. The IBC stands for many years of scientific and technical expertise and operates various machines with about 40 dedicated end-stations providing ion beams of almost all stable elements in a wide energy range from eV to 60 MeV.

Amongst the services offered at the IBC are ion beam modification of materials by ion implantation and irradiation, surface processing by low-energy / highly-charged ions (LEI/HCI) or focused ion beams (FIB), ion beam analysis (IBA), and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Some of the IBC’s highlights include IBA set-ups for in-situ (partly real-time) thin films studies, a double beamline, a PIXE camera and an ion microprobe for chemical imaging of large samples with adaptable spatial resolution, as well as an ion microscope (ORION Nanolab) for high-resolution imaging and nanofabrication. Users of the IBC can take advantage from add-on services comprising sample preparation and clean-room processing, surface and thin film metrology (electron microscopy and spectroscopy, X-ray scattering) and the availability of specific software for the simulation of ion-related processes or data evaluation.

The IBC offers its facilities and services to users from research and industry. The IBC user beam time has grown to more than 17.000 hours per year (2019). For researchers access to IBC facilities is granted free of charge.

Access to the IBC is provided based on a proposal procedure. Proposals can be submitted via the portal HZDR-GATE continuously. The scientific quality of the proposal is evaluated and ranked by an external international user selection panel. Fast-track access is offered for small scale test / pilot experiments after direct approval by local IBC experts. For industrial / commercial ion beam services the HZDR spin-off company HZDR Innovation GmbH offers fast and direct access to the facilities based on individual contracts.