NSF Award
9660897
*** 96-60897 This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a unique analytical instrument in which two types of surface analysis - sputter-initiated laser resonance ionization spectroscopy (SIRIS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) - can be carried out simultaneously, without sacrificing the performance of either. The SIRIS selective laser post-ionization provides high efficiency and excellent sample utilization with much less matrix effects and mass interferences than SIMS or most other mass analysis methods. This leads to high sensitivity in small volumes (e.g. particulates), high dynamic range, and good quantitation for a wide range of elements. The principal drawback is that SIRIS analyzes for only one element at a time. In comparison, the nonselective surface ionization of conventional TOF-SIMS has proven to be extremely useful for multielement characterization. By integrating TOF-SIMS with SIRIS, the combined instrument will enable the best of both technologies; high sensitivity and sample utilization with negligible matrix effects analysis and insignificant interferences for single-element trace analysis, and multielement material characterization from TOF-SIMS. With this combination of capabilities in a single instrument costing close to a stand alone TOF-SIMS or SIRIS, a SIRIS/TOF-SIMS instrument will become a significant contribution to the next generation of TOF mass spectrometry instrumentation. ***
