Current Status of a Vacuum Electrospray Droplet Ion Beam and towards TOF-SIMS Applications

Abstract

We have been studying vacuum electrospray droplet ion (V-EDI) beams for ionization and etching in surface analysis instruments. The V-EDI beams can ionize biomolecules with extremely high efficiency. If the V-EDI beams are applied to time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) as primary ion beams, its analysis performance will be improved significantly. However, the V-EDI beams could not be practically utilized in common TOF-SIMS instruments, because shortly pulsed V-EDI beams cannot be produced. In this article, the current status of the V-EDI beam and towards TOF-SIMS applications will be described.