https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01617-2
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Production and characterisation of molybdenum/HOPG thin targets for the NUMEN experiment
1 INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy
2 Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds, CEA/DRF-CNRS/IN2P3, B.P. 55027, Caen Cedex, France
3 Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Genova, Genova, Italy
4 INFN - Sezione di Genova, Genova, Italy
5 Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy
6 INFN - Sezione di Torino, Torino, Italy
7 Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy
8 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Ettore Majorana”, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
9 Universié de Caen Normandie, ENSICAEN, CNRS/IN2P3, LPC Caen UMR6534, 14000, Caen, France
Received:
9
December
2024
Accepted:
9
June
2025
Published online: 20 June 2025
This paper reports on the production and characterisation of thin targets of natural molybdenum deposited on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite substrates at different temperatures. The targets were characterised using alpha-particle spectroscopy, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy. These techniques were used to measure the molybdenum and substrate thicknesses, the molybdenum purity and to evaluate the overall uniformity of the target thickness over an area of several 
, which is a crucial parameter in heavy ion-induced nuclear reactions when high energy resolution is required. The present work shows that substrate heating is fundamental to reduce post-evaporation stresses and delamination effects typical of molybdenum deposition, which lead to significant non-uniformities in the surface of the target. Moreover, this study evidences how a careful characterisation of the thickness uniformity of the graphite backings is required to adequately match the resolution requirements of the NUMEN experiment.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
