The main feature of magnetic field type SIMS is that high-mass resolution measurement and high-sensitivity measurement are possible. However, since a magnetic field is used for the detector, time is required to stabilize the magnetic field strength for the target element. Therefore, there is a restriction to limit the number of analytical elements to several.
On the other hand, in quadrupole SIMS, the mass is separated by applying a high-frequency electric field to the quadrupole rod structure of the detector, so the switching speed of the mass spectrometer is high, so many different elements are analyzed together. In addition, since the sample stage is at ground potential, low-energy primary ion bombardment can be used to increase depth resolution and thus optimize the detection of elements very near the sample surface.
The table below summarizes the features of magnetic field type SIMS instruments and quadrupole type SIMS instruments. EAG uses 26 magnetic field type SIMS instruments and 18 quadrupole type SIMS instruments to optimize each analysis according to the analysis material and analysis request. Please refer to the SIMS analysis introduction page for the configuration of each instrument type.