Communications in Physics, Vol. 26, No. 1 (2016), pp. 83-92 DOI:10.15625/0868-3166/26/1/8287 ANALYTICAL POSSIBILITIES OF RUTHERFORD BACKSCATTERING SPECTROMETRY AND ELASTIC RECOIL DETECTION ANALYSIS METHODS VU DUC PHU AND LE HONG KHIEM † Institute of Physics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 10 Dao Tan, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam A. P. KOBZEV AND M. KULIK ⋆ Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna, Russia ⋆ Institute of Physics, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, pl. M. Curie-Sklodowskiej 1, 20-031 Lublin, Poland † E-mail: lhkhiem@iop.vast.vn Received 29 April 2016 Accepted for publication 21 June 2016 Abstract. This paper presents the results of an experimental study of three samples containing various elements in the near-surface layers. The depth profiles of all the elements of different atomic masses from hydrogen to silver were investigated by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrom- etry (RBS) and Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis (ERDA). The experiments were performed by using the low-energy (about 2 MeV) 4 He + ion beams. The obtained results demonstrate the pos- sibility of the RBS and ERDA methods in the investigation of depth profiles of any mass element with an atomic concentration of about 0.01 at.% and a depth resolution around 10 nm. Keywords: Rutherford backscattering spectrometry; elastic recoil detection analysis; depth pro- file; ion beam analysis. Classification numbers: 01.30.Rr; 07.77.Ka; 82.80.Yc. I. INTRODUTION The RBS and ERDA methods are widely used for solving various scientific and applied problems [1–4]. The basic physical principles underlying the RBS and ERDA methods will be presented in the next parts of this paper. The implementation of these methods requires a monochromatic beam of low-energy charged particles. A beam of helium ions generated by an electrostatic generator is best suited for this purpose. In the case of RBS, the ions are observed c 2016 Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology