Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme

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MI: Fachverband Mikrosonden

MI 7: Poster: Microanalysis and Microscopy

MI 7.8: Poster

Wednesday, March 9, 2016, 18:00–20:00, Poster E

SIMS based in-situ correlative microscopy: HIM-, TEM- and SPM-SIMS — David Dowsett, Santhana Eswara, •Florian Vollnhals, and Tom Wirtz — Advanced Instrumentation for Ion Nano-Analytics (AINA), MRT Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), 41 rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg

While Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is among the most sensitive surface analysis techniques, like all techniques, it has its limitations. For example, the lateral resolution in commercial instruments is limited to several tens of nanometers with a fundamental limit of around 10-20 nanometers.

Fortunately, some of the limitations of SIMS can be overcome by combining it with complementary techniques in a correlative approach. Combining SIMS data with high resolution microscopy techniques such as Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) or Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM), we can take advantage of high spatial resolution and high chemical sensitivity. Correlation with other analysis techniques, like Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), facilitates quantification. Additionally, SIMS combined with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) provides a path to artifact free 3D reconstruction even for complex samples with widely varying sputter yields.

In order to apply these techniques for in-situ correlative microscopy, we developed integrated instruments and methods, which will be presented in this contribution [1].

[1] T. Wirtz et al., Nanotechnology 26, 434001 (2015).