Nuclear microscopy uses a device called a microprobe

Microprobe

A microprobe is an instrument that applies a stable and well-focused beam of charged particles to a sample.-Types:When the primary beam consists of accelerated electrons, the probe is termed an electron microprobe, when the primary beam consists of accelerated ions, the term Ion Microprobe is used...

. A microprobe is a device that uses electromagnetic or electrostatic lens

Electrostatic lens

An electrostatic lens is a device that assists in the transport of charged particles. For instance, it can guide electrons emitted from a sample to an electron analyzer, analogous to the way an optical lens assists in the transport of light in an optical instrument. The recent development of...

es to focus an ion beam

Ion beam

An ion beam is a type of charged particle beam consisting of ions. Ion beams have many uses in electronics manufacturing and other industries. A variety of ion beam sources exist, some derived from the mercury vapor thrusters developed by NASA in the 1960s.-Ion beam etching or sputtering:One type...

. In this way a microprobe is very similar to a scanning electron microscope

Scanning electron microscope

A scanning electron microscope is a type of electron microscope that images a sample by scanning it with a high-energy beam of electrons in a raster scan pattern...

. One difference is that the nuclear microprobe's beam is usually composed of protons and alpha particle

Alpha particle

Alpha particles consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium nucleus, which is classically produced in the process of alpha decay, but may be produced also in other ways and given the same name...

s. Some of the most advanced nuclear microprobes have beam energies in excess of 2 MeV. This gives the device very high sensitivity to minute concentrations of elements, around 1 ppm at beam sizes smaller than 1 micrometer

Micrometre

A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...

. This elemental sensitivity exists because when the beam interacts with the a sample it gives off characteristic X-ray

X-ray

X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...

s of each element present in the sample. This type of detection of radiation is called PIXE

PIXE

Particle-induced X-ray emission or proton-induced X-ray emission is a technique used in the determining of the elemental make-up of a material or sample. When a material is exposed to an ion beam, atomic interactions occur that give off EM radiation of wavelengths in the x-ray part of the...

. Other analysis techniques are applied to nuclear microscopy including Rutherford backscattering(RBS), STIM

STIM

STIM, Svenska Tonsättares Internationella Musikbyrå, is the collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers of Sweden. Its role is to act as an agent for its members in order to collect license fees whenever their musical works are performed in public, broadcast or transmitted,...

, etc.