Oxidation effect on the SIMS analysis of samples sputtered and deposited by the Storing Matter technique

Storing Matter is a new technique developed to avoid the matrix effect appearing during secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analysis by decoupling the sputtering step of the sample to be analyzed from the subsequent analysis step by SIMS. Prior to the analysis, the emitted matter is deposited at a sub-monolayer level on a well known collector, whose oxidation state may influence the secondary ion yields of the deposit. The aim of this work is to study the influence of the oxidation of a Si collector on the secondary ion yields of In and Au deposits analyzed in positive and negative modes, respectively. We have observed in our study that extreme variations of the level of oxidation alter the ion yield, although the oxidation generated on a Si0 collector under vacuum is not enough to induce relevant changes.