Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) has in recent years become a useful tool for surface analysis in industrial laboratories. All elements and isotopes, as well as many molecular entities, can be detected by SIMS, with most of the signal coming from the outer 10 - 20 Å of the surface. The initial penetration of TOF-SIMS into industry was as an improvement over existing quadrupole instruments, with higher mass range, mass resolution, and sensitivity. The coupling of TOF-SIMS with high brightness liquid metal ion sources greatly expanded the applicability of the technique, making chemical imaging of the outermost monolayers of a surface a routine experiment.Several examples will be presented of TOF-SIMS imaging applied to real-world materials encountered in an industrial analytical laboratory. All results were obtained from a PHI-Evans TFS series instrument equipped with an FEI two-lens 69Ga+ liquid metal ion gun (LMIG). When operated at 25 keV beam energy, a primary ion beam diameter of 2500 Å in continuous mode, and 1-2 μm in pulsed mode, can routinely be obtained.
Chemical Imaging of Plant Samples by Cryo-TOF-SIMS