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Advances in Elemental Characterization of Materials and Mass Spectrometry Technique Development

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Materials Characterization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2023) | Viewed by 3135

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Thun, Switzerland
Interests: mass spectrometry; material characterization; FIB-TOF-SIMS technique development; focused ion beam; nanotechnology

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Guest Editor
John de Laeter Centre, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA, Australia
Interests: FIB-SEM; ToF-SIMS; geopolymer; geoscience

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Guest Editor
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CEA, Leti, Grenoble, France
Interests: TOF-SIMS; material science

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The extensive development of novel micro-and nanotechnologies, based on thin films and nanoparticle-containing systems, requires precise and reliable chemical characterization techniques, being particularly important for microelectronics, microdevices for new energy applications, and biotechnological applications such as the chemical structure-determining electrical, mechanical, and optical properties of new materials and, therefore, their ultimate functionality.

The Special Issue "Advances in Elemental Characterization of Materials and Mass Spectrometry Technique Development" of Materials (Impact Factor: 3.623 as of the year 2020; 5-Year Impact Factor: 3.920) intends to cover all recent aspects of mass spectrometry, including fundamental research, method upgrades, as well as its applications.

The scope of this Special Issue will mainly focus on, but is not limited to:

  • Mass spectrometry basics (ionization mechanisms, matrix effect, resolution and sensitivity improvements, signal enhancement methods, data interpretation, and troubleshooting);
  • Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), including gas-assisted TOF-SIMS;
  • Atom probe tomography (ATP);
  • Chemical characterization of surfaces, thin films, nanoparticles, organic-inorganic hybrid materials;
  • Correlative studies in micro-and nanoscale;
  • In situ process analysis and early-stage detection of process malfunction.

Dr. Agnieszka Priebe
Dr. William Rickard
Dr. Marc Veillerot
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mass spectrometry
  • chemical characterization
  • TOF-SIMS
  • technique development
  • gas-assisted FIB-TOF-SIMS
  • material science
  • 3D material structure
  • surface analysis
  • process analysis
  • atom probe tomography

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

34 pages, 11195 KiB  
Review
Review of Recent Advances in Gas-Assisted Focused Ion Beam Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (FIB-TOF-SIMS)
by Agnieszka Priebe and Johann Michler
Materials 2023, 16(5), 2090; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16052090 - 03 Mar 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3899
Abstract
Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) is a powerful chemical characterization technique allowing for the distribution of all material components (including light and heavy elements and molecules) to be analyzed in 3D with nanoscale resolution. Furthermore, the sample’s surface can be probed over [...] Read more.
Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) is a powerful chemical characterization technique allowing for the distribution of all material components (including light and heavy elements and molecules) to be analyzed in 3D with nanoscale resolution. Furthermore, the sample’s surface can be probed over a wide analytical area range (usually between 1 µm2 and 104 µm2) providing insights into local variations in sample composition, as well as giving a general overview of the sample’s structure. Finally, as long as the sample’s surface is flat and conductive, no additional sample preparation is needed prior to TOF-SIMS measurements. Despite many advantages, TOF-SIMS analysis can be challenging, especially in the case of weakly ionizing elements. Furthermore, mass interference, different component polarity of complex samples, and matrix effect are the main drawbacks of this technique. This implies a strong need for developing new methods, which could help improve TOF-SIMS signal quality and facilitate data interpretation. In this review, we primarily focus on gas-assisted TOF-SIMS, which has proven to have potential for overcoming most of the aforementioned difficulties. In particular, the recently proposed use of XeF2 during sample bombardment with a Ga+ primary ion beam exhibits outstanding properties, which can lead to significant positive secondary ion yield enhancement, separation of mass interference, and inversion of secondary ion charge polarity from negative to positive. The implementation of the presented experimental protocols can be easily achieved by upgrading commonly used focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopes (FIB/SEM) with a high vacuum (HV)-compatible TOF-SIMS detector and a commercial gas injection system (GIS), making it an attractive solution for both academic centers and the industrial sectors. Full article
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