TOF-SIMS Analysis of Interstellar SiC Grains

Details TOF-SIMS Analysis of Interstellar SiC Grains TOF-SIMS Analysis of Interstellar SiC Grains

Mar 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996lpi....27.1267s&link_type=abstract

Lunar and Planetary Science, volume 27, page 1267

Computer Science

2

Grains: Interstellar, Isotopes: Carbon, Silicon Carbide, Time-Of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (Tof-, Ims)

Scientific paper

Ten interstellar SiC grains from the Murchison CM2 meteorite that were previously investigated at Washington University have been analyzed using Time-Of-Flight Secondary-Ion-Mass-Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). During the last years we have demonstrated the potential of this technique for the analysis of small samples like interplanetary dust particles or micrometeorites. Simultaneous detection of all secondary ions (positive or negative) at high transmission of the spectrometer (20-80%) and sufficient mass resolution (m/ m <= 6000 at 50% peak-height) for separation of most molecular interferences from elemental peaks at high lateral resolution (beam diameter: ~0.2 microns) allow to obtain extensive information on individual SiC grains without completely destroying the sample. During a typical TOF-SIMS analysis only a few monolayers are consumed whereas conventional SIMS techniques, mainly with double focussing mass spectrometers (DF-SIMS), are more destructive and small samples like typical SiC grains are easily sputtered away. Therefore, TOF-SIMS seems to be ideally suited for the analysis of these grains with a typical size of a few microns. Nevertheless, TOF-SIMS suffers from some of the same problems like all SIMS techniques, e.g., with quantification. Most attempts to measure isotopic ratios yielded unsatisfactory results so far because in many cases the required precision (typically in the order of permill) could not be achieved due to low count rates and therefore high statistical errors and/or due to non-sufficient mass resolution for a complete separation of interferences from hydrates (e.g., 12C1H from 13C).

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