SIMS imaging of the nanoworld: applications in science and technology

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) enables surface chemical analysis of nano-scaled objects and chemical imaging of nano-scaled details of natural or artificial objects. This review presents the state of the art in nanoscale SIMS analysis. At first a short introduction into recent instrumentation for high resolution SIMS imaging and the limiting factors of lateral resolution is given. The next section covers the chemical analysis of nanoparticles. Recent applications of nanoscale imaging SIMS in geology, cosmochemistry, materials research, cellular biology, ecology and medical research are summarized and illustrated by examples. This review gives a short introduction into instrumentation for high resolution imaging Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) and summarizes nanoscale imaging SIMS of nanoparticles and recent applications in geology, cosmochemistry, materials research, cellular biology, ecology and medical research.