Surface Analysis by Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS): Principles and Applications from Swiss laboratories

Johanna Marin Carbonne,Anne-Sophie Bouvier,Andras Kiss,Anders Meibom,Thomas Bovay,Florent Plane,Lukas Baumgartner,Stephane Escrig,Daniela Rubatto

doi:10.2533/chimia.2022.26

Johanna Marin Carbonne, Anne-Sophie Bouvier + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2022.26

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Journal: CHIMIA	Publication Date: Feb 23, 2022
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Centro Universitário Filadélfia, University of Bern

Abstract

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) extracts chemical, elemental, or isotopic information about a localized area of a solid target by performing mass spectrometry on secondary ions sputtered from its surface by the impact of a beam of charged particles. This primary beam sputters ionized atoms and small molecules (as well as many neutral particles) from the upper few nanometers of the sample surface. The physical basis of SIMS has been applied to a large range of applications utilizing instruments optimized with different types of mass analyzer, either dynamic SIMS with a double focusing mass spectrometer or static SIMS with a Time of Flight (TOF) analyzer. Here, we present a short review of the principles and major applications of three different SIMS instruments located in Switzerland.

Highlights

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) extracts chemical, elemental, or isotopic information about a localized area of a solid target by performing mass spectrometry on secondary ions sputtered from its surface by the impact of a beam of charged particles
The mass analyzer used in static SIMS measures the Time-ofFlight (TOF) of secondary ions as heavier ions lag behind lighter ions
Few studies have demonstrated the complementary nature of these three different SIMS instruments

Summary

Applications

The NanoSIMS was primarily developed to produce images of large chemical or isotopic variations in solid samples, when high spatial resolution is needed to resolve sub-micrometer structures with relatively modest analytical precision. It is the perfect analytical instrument in conjunction with biological labelling experiments, where high spatial resolution is required and extremely high analytical precision is not a strict requirement. A number of remarkable scientific publications using NanoSIMS to study geological and geo-biological materials have appeared, e.g. pertaining to the emergence of life and trophic interactions in ancient microbial ecosystems.[97–100]. The NanoSIMS is increasingly playing a pivotal role in a number of fundamental and applied biological studies on tissues as diverse as brain, heart, and liver, over plants, to stem cells.[103,109–117]

Findings

Conclusions and Perspectives