Reconstruction of low-count step-like signals in ion microbeam analysis

The evaluation of experimental data of ion microbeam analysis is often hindered by low counts/pixel statistics of elemental or tomographic images available within limited acquisition time, mainly at low elemental concentrations. In this contribution we present a method based on a non-linear iterative deconvolution scheme, designed to recover step-like profiles with forcibly low counts. To demonstrate its performance and effectiveness, the algorithm was applied for measured one-dimensional profiles with a micrometre resolution, generated by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (μRBS) at the ATOMKI scanning nuclear microprobe facility. The method can be extended to solve the analogous two-dimensional problem, giving an improvement of nuclear microscopic methods, like channelling contrast microscopy (CCM).