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Description
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Understanding nanomaterials and their transformation processes at the relevant spatial scales raises the need for the development of powerful characterization techniques excelling in terms of lateral resolution and sensitivity. State-of-the-art Focused Ion Beam (FIB) technologies are in high demand nowadays since they allow not only to perform nanoscale patterning, but also high-resolution ion imaging and analytical surface measurements with Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) [1, 2]. SIMS is a powerful surface analysis technique where by impinging primary ions on the surface secondary ions are generated and separated by a mass analyzer to record chemical information. Advantages of SIMS are the high dynamic range and high sensitivity. Typical analysis modes in SIMS are mass spectrum recording, depth profiling, 2D imaging, 3D imaging (and also 4D imaging) [3]. In the past, correlating FIB platforms for high-resolution ion microscopy with in-situ SIMS has allowed to acquire complementary information for a deeper topographic and chemical understanding of specimen in various fields, including materials sciences, biology and geology [1, 2, 4]. The IONMASTER magSIMS system is the result of a cooperation between Raith and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST). It was developed to correlate ion microscopy with high lateral resolution SIMS imaging. The system is a unique combination of a Liquid Metal Alloy Ion Source (LMAIS) [5] emitting multiple ion species simultaneously from a single source (GaBiLi and AuGeSi currently available) and a dedicated magnetic sector SIMS unit (Fig. 1). Within the LMAIS the ion species are separated in a downstream Wien filter which allows to choose and switch within a few seconds between the desired primary ion species e.g. Bi+ for high sputtering yields and Li+ for highest resolution ion microscopy [6]. The SIMS unit is equipped with insertable/retractable extraction optics to transfer secondary ions through a mass analyzer onto a focal plane detector allowing parallel acquisition of full mass spectra for each scanned pixel within the selected field of view [4], leaving the user a multitude of possibilities to post-process and correlate the data. Further key strengths of this FIB-SIMS platform are the possibility to use application specific primary ion beams, i.e. the ability to quickly switch between reactive primary ion species to maximize either positive (e.g., Bi+ single primary ions and clusters) or negative ionization (e.g., Li+ primary ions) of the sputtered particles. The small beam diameter of the lightest primary ion (Li+ ) allows to perform high spatial resolution imaging in SIMS (< 20 nm). The low penetration depth of heavy Bi+ (and clusters) into the material enables excellent depth resolution. Moreover, the combination of a LMAIS FIB, Laser Interferometer Stage with CAD based navigation and magnetic-sector SIMS reveals a high potential for automatized nano-analysis workflows. In this contribution, we will present the key features of the new IONMASTER magSIMS system equipped with GaBiLi/AuGeSi sources [7]. We will show first results on correlative 2D and 3D imaging focused on applications including CIGS solar cells (Fig. 2), geological and microelectronics samples investigated on the recently developed nano-analysis system. (2024-07-24)
***This entry has been automatically imported via Infodoc(ASO) CSV by LIST harvest scripts. Please refer to https://doi.org/10.1093/mam/ozae044.237 for the original and latest version of the dataset and data downloads*** (2026-06-24)
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