Go easy on the ToF-SIMS for organic materials

Organic materials are damaged by ToF-SIMS spectrometry, due to the high impact energy they are subjected to during exposure to the pulsed beam of ions. The Nanocharacterization Platform has a new piece of equipment that will eliminate this concern. The lab’s new ToF-SIMS spectrometer with argon gas cluster ion beams creates impact energy of just a few eV per atom. Which means, first, that the material being observed undergoes virtually no degradation and, second, that the tests carried out are more reliable.

The new spectrometer has already been used several times, including to test the effectiveness of barrier films and to characterize a complete OLED stack.

The lab still needs to develop comprehensive testing protocols. However, it is clear that the spectrometer will open new doors in the field of organic systems. ToF-SIMS provides information at the molecular level (3D composition, chemical degradation) to depths of several hundred nanometers.

Contact: jean-paul.barnes@cea.fr

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