NanoSIMS (SIMS : Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry)

Principle

NanoSIMS is a secondary ion mass spectrometer, of which the primary ion beam can be focused down to 50 nm by employing a special ion optical design. It enables to obtain elemental distributions in the field of a few micrometers.
To obtain an intense small beam spot, NanoSIMS adopts a single co-axial objective and extraction lens, which allows us to achieve rather short working distance. The bombardment of primary ion beam (cesium or oxygen) at normal incidence would generate secondary ions. The secondary ion optical system adopts the magnetic field sector type, and it is capable of elemental analysis with high sensitivity of ppm to sub% level under high mass resolution condition.
Basically, seven ion species including light element like hydrogen can be detected simultaneously. Since the ion beam current density is suppressed, the analysis depth is shallower than that of conventional dynamic SIMS, which would be several tens of hundreds nm in maximum. NanoSIMS is a powerful tool for imaging analysis to evaluate an elemental distribution in a micrometer-sized region with high sensitivity.