UK National Ion Beam Centre Core Equipment 2024

A single UK facility fires beams of charged atoms at materials to alter their properties at the atomic scale, and it is getting a major equipment upgrade. This matters because ion beams are essential tools for both fundamental science and industrial innovation. Researchers use them to implant impurities into semiconductors, modify the surfaces of metals and ceramics, and analyse the composition of materials at microscopic depths. Without access to state-of-the-art ion beam equipment, UK scientists and companies would lose the ability to develop next-generation electronics, advanced coatings, and nuclear materials. The facility currently supports more than 50 companies and organisations, and has underpinned over £150 million of EPSRC-funded research in the past five years. The upgrade will keep the UK National Ion Beam Centre at the forefront of its field, increasing access for academic and industrial users. Over 70 EPSRC-funded PhD students have already used the facility in the past five years; the new equipment will allow more researchers to conduct experiments that are currently impossible or impractical. The impact is primarily on research infrastructure rather than on everyday life directly, but the materials and devices developed using these beams—from more efficient solar cells to radiation-hardened electronics for satellites—eventually reach the public through improved technology.