Development and Operation of Special SIMS-Equipment for Use in Iron and Steel Analysis

Analysis of steel surfaces andin-depth profiling of the layer structure of different materials by SIMS often implies some compromises with the commercial instruments available today Ion microprobes with high sputtering rates and ion microscopes with similar possibilities are very successful in describing the distribution of phases and elements in micro-range, but they have no representative analysis area, most needed for technical information on products. Ion-scanning instruments with a larger area of analysis are often restricted by these conditions in fast sputtering in-depth.