Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry for Surface Analysis

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is a relatively new technique for surface chemical analysis compared with Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). SIMS examines the mass of ions, instead of energy of electrons, escaped from a solid surface to obtain information on surface chemistry. Analysis of surface chemical structure requires use of the static SIMS technique to ensure that the major portion of the surface should not be affected by secondary ion emission. SIMS instrumentation enables us to operate SIMS in a scanning mode because it is equipped with an X-Y deflector on the primary ion beam. Formation of SIMS images is quite similar to chemical element mapping by energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and AES. Depth profiling can be conducted in both dynamic and static SIMS.