Radioactivity measurements for the thin layer activation technique

Thin layer activation (TLA) is one of the promising techniques employing radiotracers at low levels of radioactivity for material performance studies such as wear and corrosion. The principle of TLA is the creation of an appropriate radionuclide in a given material to a well defined depth of a selected area. This activation is realised by exposure of the component to a charged particle beam using, e.g., a cyclotron facility. If the material is subjected to mechanical or chemical degradation, any loss of the activated material will result in a loss in radioactivity of the activated component. The sensitivity of TLA technique is high due to the capability of low level radioactivity measurement performed by γ spectrometry. The sensitivity of TLA is below 0.1 μm thickness loss or 1 ng mass loss. In the present paper, some applications of TLA in ongoing research at the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission are presented.