Surface modification by soft landing of reagent beams

Unusual ionic species created in mass spectrometry can be separated from their congeners, isotopically selected, and supplied with well-defined translational energies. Such advantages of precise characterization counterbalance the disadvantage of small ion flux in synthetic experiments which capture these reagents at surfaces, and analyze the products by sensitive surface analytical techniques. Variation of the energy of the transferred ions is reflected in the products formed at the secondary surface. Preparation times of one hour create sufficient material for analysis by SIMS.