The Fundamentals of SIMS

As with many analytical techniques, an understanding of the fundamental concepts underlying the generation of a recorded signal is not necessary in order to carry out an effective routine analysis. Indeed, the analytical information needed is most often acquired through comparisons of known good versus known bad samples, or comparisons of unknown versus known samples (the latter can be in the form of reference materials) using procedures developed specifically for the analysis at hand. 

There are, however, situations in which some degree of knowledge of the processes can help. Examples of this fall into two specific areas, these being  

Understanding and setting up optimal analytical conditions for new types of analyses. Note The intensity of various types of secondary ions, which include the atomic and molecular species of many types that can exist as positive or negative ions, are dependent on the following  

C24H12 , and so on, even though ions from large molecules such as Cgo are in fact molecular ions. 

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry An Introduction to Principles and Practices, First Edition. Paul van der Heide. 

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