IJCLab (CNRS and Université Paris-Saclay), France

Astrid Berens

The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) is a public organization under the responsibility of the French Ministry of Education and Research. The Laboratoire de Physique des deux Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie (IJCLab) is a CNRS (IN2P3 Institute) and Université Paris-Saclay joint research unit located in Orsay. MOSAIC is a multidisciplinary research platform that is open to academics, lab works and industrials of many scientific disciplines that used ion beams: materials science, astrochemistry, astrophysics, nuclear physics, geology, biology, health, environment, etc.

The MOSAIC platform consists of different equipment for ion irradiation / implantation (4 MV Andromede and 2 MV ARAMIS ion accelerators, 190 kV IRMA ion implanter, 40 kV SIDONIE isotope separator, …) and analysis (RBS, ERDA, PIXE, PIGE, TEM, SEM, AFM, MSI, …), including specimen preparation (cutting, polishing). The experimental hall bringing together the IRMA ion implanter, the ARAMIS ion accelerator, and the various associated beam lines (including the in situ TEM) is known as JANNuS-Orsay, and is part of the JANNuS Scientific Interest Group with the triple beam facility JANNuS-Saclay at CEA.

The coupling of the Transmission Electron Microscope (200 kV TEM) with ARAMIS and IRMA, is unique in the world due to the diversity of elements and energies that it allows one to accelerate in situ inside the TEM. This device makes it possible to characterize the evolution of structural and chemical modifications of materials subjected to one or two beams of ions, in situ at the nanometric scale.

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) makes it possible to study different types of samples in a wide variety of fields, in materials science, astrochemistry (chemical molecular characterization), in biology (search for molecules of interest in different mineral and organic matrices). The use of high-energy nanoparticles as projectiles to probe surfaces is unique at the national and international levels.

The MOSAIC platform is a founding member of the EMIR&A French accelerator federation which is included in the French national roadmap for research infrastructures.

MOSAIC’s main areas of competence:

  • Ion beam modification of materials and ion-matter interactions studies (high purity isotope deposit, ion beam synthesis, ion implantation and irradiation, nuclear reactions) with a large diversity of ions available (from protons to gold nanoparticles Aunq+), in a large range of energies (from 50 eV to 32 MeV)
  • Ion beam analysis (RBS, RBS-C, ERDA, PIXE, PIGE, mPIXE, mass spectrometry imaging)
  • In situ characterization techniques (dual beam TEM, RBS-C, TOF SIMS, future XRD)

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