Abstract
The biggest advantage of TOF-SIMS is imaging capability. TOF-SIMS is the only surface analysis technique which can provide the elemental and molecular ion images with high spatial resolution and high sensitivity. However, it is difficult to deal with topographic samples such as wire or sphere, because TOF-SIMS is designed to do a spectrum and image analysis with flat samples. The observable region in wire and sphere samples was restricted, then it was impossible to discuss the accurate distributions of specific ions on the sample surface. Several methods to solve this problem have been proposed, but they had some disadvantages. Therefore, the authors have developed newly designed sample holder for the samples which have curved surface. The authors succeeded to expand the observable region dramatically without any significant drawbacks. In this article, the details of curved surface sample holder and its evaluation results will be discussed, and applications using this sample holder are also discussed.
