SSL Seminar Series 2001 No. 8
Title: Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) - The IMS 6f and its Applications
Speaker: Dr. Lim Sin Leng (SSL, NUS)
Date: 28th March 2001
Time: 5:00-6:00pm
Venue: Physics Resource Room S13, 02-16

Abstract
SIMS is an analytical technique for the characterization of surfaces, interfaces and bulk materials. It uses a beam of energetic primary ions to sputter the sample, producing secondary ions that can be detected by a mass spectrometer. The Cameca IMS6f is a powerful dynamic SIMS tool, designed for depth profile (DP) analysis.

In this presentation, I will provide a brief introduction to the SIMS technique in general, follow by a detailed description on the instrumentation of the IMS6f. Various components that will be covered include primary and secondary ion optics, duoplasmatron (DUO) and cesium (Cs) sources, neutralizing electron gun (NEG), post-acceleration system, and rotating sample stage. Topics related to SIMS analysis will also be discussed, such as high mass resolution, analysis of insulating samples, oxygen flooding, sample rotation, MCs+ and M2M3 methods, ultra-shallow DP, high depth resolution, MRI model and double-exponential decay function. Results obtained from the IMS6f over the past 3 years will be used as examples during the presentation when applicable, to illustrate its capabilities.

About the speaker
Dr Lim Sin Leng obtained his BSc, MSc and PhD degrees from the Department of Physics, NUS. After obtaining his MSc in 1990, he worked as an engineer in the then Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research (SISIR). In 1994, he spent a year in the Interface Analysis Centre (IAC), University of Bristol, UK, where he was introduced to the field of surface science and various related instrumentation. Subsequently, he pursued his PhD in surface science in the Department of Physics, NUS, and joined the Surface Science Lab (SSL) as a research officer in 1998. He is currently a research fellow attached to SSL, under the Institute of Engineering Science (IES), NUS. His current research interests are in surface and interface studies of (conjugated) polymers, semiconductors, and various advanced materials using surface analysis techniques such as XPS, SIMS and AES.