NSF Award
9800951
**** 9800951 Willey This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II 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 postionization 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, very high selectivity, high dynamic range, and good quantitation for the trace element of interest. The nonselective surface ionization of conventional TOF-SIMS has proven to be extremely useful for multi-element 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 and insignificant interferences for single-element trace analysis, and multi-element material characterization from TOF-SIMS. With this combination of capabilities in a single instrument costing close to a stand-alone TOF-SIMS or SIRIS instrument (due to similarities in instrumentation), we expect that the proposed SIRIS/TOF-SIMS instrument will become a significant contribution to surface characterization. The capabilities of the proposed instrument will crosscut the applications for TOF-SIMS and dynamic SIMS. It will be used in characterizations of interfaces, nano-structure devices, shallow implants and bio-materials where high sensitivity, high selectivity, high sample material utilization and matrix independence are required.
