Technique for profiling 1H with 2.5-MeV Van de Graaff accelerators

We describe an elastic recoil detection (ERD) analysis technique for profiling 1H in the near-surface regions of solids using a 2.5-MeV Van de Graaff accelerator commonly used for ion-backscattering analysis. Energy analysis of 1H forward scattered by 2.4-MeV 4He incident on the target tilted at an angle of ∼75° yields a depth resolution of ≲700 Å and a sensitivity of better than 0.1 at.% for 1H to depths of ≲0.6 μm in solids.