The Storing Matter technique: Application to inorganic samples

The Storing Matter technique has been developed recently in SAM to perform quantitative surface analysis with high sensitivity: the sample to be analysed is sputtered by ion bombardment. Ejected particles hit a collector and stick to it to form a sub-monolayer on its surface. This collector is subsequently analysed by SIMS. For the present work, the main points of interest were the shape of the deposit as well as the overall useful yields, the latter depending upon collector sticking coefficients and SIMS ionisation yields. Our results show that high sensitivities are obtained. The loss of matter during the deposition process is compensated by high ionisation yields induced by an appropriate choice of the collector surface. However, the experiments show a poor reproducibility. Different reasons have been identified and dealt with.