The 14N (d, p0)15 reaction for measurements of nitrogen depth distributions in single seeds of wheat

Abstract

The 14N(d, p0)15N reaction, with 6 MeV deuterons, has been used to measure the nitrogen depth distributions in single grains of wheat. In order to test the applicability of the method forplant breeding purposes, we have studied 1000 grains which were part of a larger material of about 50000 grains, grown and harvested under controlled biological conditions. The measurednitrogen distribution show striking correlation with parameters describing the nitrogen level of the fertilizer, the timee of harveting, the grain position in a head and the analyzed variety. contributions from interfering elements in the aleuron layer limited the depth that could be analyzed to 120 μm. The importance of effects like electronic pile up,grain heating by the beam and geometric irregularities of the grainms were studied in detail. The possibility to use the technique for selection purposes in plant breeding is discussed.