The positron microprobe at LLNL

The electron linac-based positron source at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provides the world's highest current beam of keV positrons. We are building a positron microprobe that will produce a pulsed, focused positron beam for 3-dimensional scans of defect size and concentration with sub-micron resolution. The widely spaced and intense positron packets from the tungsten moderator at the end of the 100 MeV LLNL linac are captured and trapped in a magnetic bottle. The positrons are then released in 1 ns bunches at a 20 MHz repetition rate. With a three-stage re-moderation we will compress the cm-sized original beam to a 1 mu m diameter final spot on the target. The buncher will compress the arrival time of positrons on the target to less than 100 ps. A detector array with up to 60 BaF2 crystals in paired coincidence will measure the annihilation radiation with high efficiency and low background. The energy of the positrons can be varied from less than 1 keV up to 50 keV. The target can be instrumented to allow in situ annealing, cooling and stress. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.