Answer:
Many techniques derived from Nuclear Physics, more explicitly from particle accelerators, came to be used in industrial processes, promoting increased efficiency and great economic impact.
One of the most important applications for the industry is the detectors used to determine the composition of semiconductor materials. Semiconductors figure as the raw material for all used electronic components, from chips present in computers and cell phones to simple electrical connections. For these components to work perfectly, it is of fundamental importance that their purity is guaranteed. Thus, chemical element characterization techniques, such as PIXE (particle-induced X-ray emission), measure the emission of X-rays from samples bombed by protons during the collision of the proton beam with the atomic nuclei. These techniques also measure the emission of electromagnetic waves to determine characteristics, such as atomic mass and electrical charge, of some material.
The PIXE technique and other techniques, such as PIGE (proton-induced gamma ray emission), are able to determine the exact composition of different types of samples. They are also used in museums to determine the originality of a work and in space probes, such as Mars Rover, which aims to study the composition of the planet Mars.
