Magic energies for detecting light elements with resonant alpha particle backscattering

Resonant backscattering is widely used to improve the detection limit of the light elements such as B, C, N and O. One disadvantage, however, is that several incident energies are normally needed if the sample contains a number of the light elements. There are "magic" energies at which several light elements can be detected simultaneously with suitable sensitivities. When these energies are used along with the elastic recoil detection of hydrogen, multiple elements can be detected without changing the beam energy, and the analysis time is greatly reduced. These reactions along with examples will be discussed.