Static Secondary-ion Mass Spectrometry - History of Static SIMS

History of Static SIMS

Static SIMS was introduced by Benninghoven at the University of Münster in 1969. He applied the technique of SIMS to study surfaces in UHV by deliberately using low primary ion currents covering large areas. Initially, most SSIMS was performed using Quadrupole mass analyzer. However, in mid-1980 it was realized that Time-of-Flight spectrometers is more efficient for this mode of SIMS. Static SIMS and other Surface Techniques Compared to other surface techniques, such as Auger and Photoelectron spectroscopy, SSIMS offers some unique features:

1. Isotope sensitivity
2. Hydrogen sensitivity
3. Direct compound detection by molecular secondary ion emission and
4. Extremely high sensitivity, very often in the ppm range.

However, one problem in static SIMS application may be quantification. This problem can be overcome by using a combination of electron spectroscopic techniques such as Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS or XPS) with Static SIMS .