NanoSIMS

Welcome

The Cameca NanoSIMS 50 is an ultra high resolution chemical imaging instrument combining the sensitivity of dynamic SIMS with a lateral resolution below 100nm. Our machine was delivered in August 2002 and is currently being used on a wide range of projects in the analysis of metallic and polymeric materials. The current focus of interest has shifted away from the typical materials found in materials science towards more life science oriented projects which include cancer cells, cancer tissue, trace elements in cereal grains and metal hyperaccumulator plants.

The unique elemental and isotopic sensitivity and accuracy in combination with unrivaled lateral resolution makes the NanoSIMS the instrument of choice for samples with chemical features below 100nm in size and concentrations in the ppm, in some cases even in the ppb range. In combination with other analytical techniques available in the Department of Materials, such as optical microscopy, AFM, SEM and EPMA it is possible to carry out multi-technique analysis and complement the chemical maps aquired by the NanoSIMS.