Secondary ion mass spectrometry measurements with a large scale-to-resolution ratio

There is an implicit coupling between the measurement scale and its resolution, and the scale-to-resolution ratio rarely exceeds three orders of magnitude. However, many phenomena in materials science occur on vast scales, but the mechanism that governs them should be considered at a much smaller scale, even atomic. The article shows how to break this limitation for the secondary ion mass spectrometry technique, which is well known for its excellent detection limit and unparalleled determination of the elemental composition of a sample. Several issues that decrease the quality of results, such as roughening of the bottom of the crater, primary beam deterioration, shadowing effect, and hydrogen desorption, are identified and mitigated. As a result, the scale-to-resolution ratio is improved by more than two orders of magnitude, sometimes reaching $3\times 10^5$. The proposed method is very versatile and can be readily applied to address a large variety of materials science issues, ranging from atomically-resolved studies of oxidation, thermal decomposition of the InAs/InAsSb superlattice, room temperature diffusion of copper in silicon to metallurgical aspect of hydrogen embrittlement of steel.