An alternative technique for oxygen surface coverage measurements

Abstract Absolute cross sections and angular distributions have been measured with a precision of ∼ 4% for the 16 O( 3 He, α) 15 O and 16 O( 3 He, p) 18 F nuclear reactions at an energy corresponding to a weak resonance, E( 3 He) ≈ 2.4 MeV . The total cross section summed over p 0 −p 6 and α approaches 4 mb/sr at backward detection angles. These reactions offer significant advantages over the 16 O(d,p 1 ) 17 O reaction for oxygen surface coverage measurements, particularly on low-atomic-number substrates.