Sputter cathode for application of radioactive material

摘要

Making a sputter cathode for applying a radioactive material includes obtaining a wafer containing a base material having a stable precursor dissolved therein. The base material is transmutable into a material having a relatively short atomic half-life. The wafer is atomically activated to transmute a portion of the stable precursor into a radioactive material. The base material may be silicon or germanium. The stable precursor may be 31P and the radioactive material may be 32P. Atomically activating the wafer may include exposing the wafer to a source of thermal neutrons by, for example, placing the wafer in a high-flux nuclear reactor for approximately four weeks.