| AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Applied Surface Science Division | Monday Sessions |
| Session AS+BI+MI-MoM |
| Session: | Practical Surface Analysis: Getting the Most Out of Your Analysis using Complementary Techniques |
| Presenter: | Tom Wirtz, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg |
| Authors: | T. Wirtz, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg J.-N. Audinot, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg D.M.F. Dowsett, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg S. Eswara, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Development of innovative characterization tools is of paramount importance to advance the frontiers of science and technology in nearly all areas of research. In order to overcome the limitations of individual techniques, correlative microscopy has been recognized as a powerful approach to obtain complementary information about the investigated materials. High-resolution imaging techniques such as Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) or Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) offer excellent spatial resolution. However, the analytical techniques associated with TEM such as Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) or Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) are inadequate for the analysis of (i) isotopes, (ii) trace concentrations (< 0.1 at. % or < 1000 ppm) and (iii) light elements (H, Li, B). Likewise, for the case of HIM, until recently there was no direct possibility to perform elemental mapping because sub-30 keV He+ or Ne+ ion irradiation do not excite X-ray emission. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS), on the other hand, is an extremely powerful technique for analysing surfaces owing in particular to its excellent sensitivity (detection limits down to the ppb are possible, so that SIMS can be used to detect both major and trace elements), high dynamic range (a same signal can be followed over several orders of magnitude), high mass resolution and ability to differentiate between isotopes.
In order to combine the high spatial resolution of TEM and HIM with the analytical sensitivity of SIMS, we developed integrated TEM-SIMS [1,2] and HIM-SIMS [2-4] instruments. The main advantage of this in-situ correlative approach is its capability to analyse the same area of interest of any sample without need of transferring the sample from one instrument to another one, which would result in a number of artefacts ranging from surface contamination to issues with localizing exactly the same ROIs. Moreover, the integrated approach allows fast and multiple interlacing between the different imaging and analysis modes.
In this talk, we will first introduce the TEM-SIMS and HIM-SIMS instruments and discuss their performance characteristics. We will then present a number of examples taken from various fields of materials science and life science to show the powerful correlative microscopy possibilities enabled by these new in-situ methods.
[1] L. Yedra et al., Sci. Rep. 6, 28705, 2016
[2] T. Wirtz et al., Nanotechnology 26 (2015) 434001
[3] T. Wirtz et al., Helium Ion Microscopy, ed. G. Hlawacek, A. Gölzhäuser, Springer, 2017
[4] P. Gratia et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 138 (49) 15821–15824, 2016