NUKLEONIKA 2005, 50(Supplement 3):S11-S15
Andrzej Turos
Institute of Electronic Materials Technology,
133 Wólczyńska Str., 01-919 Warsaw, Poland
and The Andrzej Sołtan Institute of Nuclear Studies,
05-400 Otwock-Świerk, Poland
Since at least forty years accelerators of charged particles no longer belong to nuclear physics
exclusively. This is especially true for accelerators at energies below 1 GeV. The vast majority of
accelerators in this energy range is used for materials research and medicine. In materials research
the applications are principally twofold: modifications of solids and surface layer microanalysis.
Two most important challenges for materials research at the beginning of XXI century as determined
by the Materials Research Society are: development of materials able to repair human body and
development of materials for new electronic devices able to cope with the enormous amount of
information to be stored and transmitted. The role of accelerators with regard to the challenges
of modern technology will be discussed.