Compensation of Time-of-Flight Drift Using an Internal Reference Ion during Long-Duration LIMAS Depth Profiling
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: In this study, the temporal behavior and compensation of time-of-flight (TOF) drift during long-duration depth profiling using Laser Ionization Mass Nanoscope (LIMAS) were investigated.Noble gas depth profiling by LIMAS requires detection of weak isotope signals with nanometer-scale depth resolution.However, such measurements often take several hours to a couple of days, during which TOF peakposition drift and statistical uncertainty may affect analytical precision.In this study, a 4 He-implanted olivine substrate was analyzed as a test sample.The TOF spectra were processed by depth-layer stacking, peak extraction, and peak-position analysis.The 24 Mg 2+ peak was used as a matrix-derived internal reference to monitor and compensate TOF drift.The peak-position shifts of measured ions showed clear linear correlations with the 24 Mg 2+ peak shift, indicating that the observed TOF drift is largely systematic.A 24 Mg 2+ -based compensation reduced the peak-position fluctuations of the other ion species to less than 1 ns and improved the mass resolving power.These results demonstrate that the 24 Mg 2+ peak can be used as an internal reference for TOF drift compensation during long-duration measurements, providing a robust approach for micro-to nanoscale noble gas depth profiling using LIMAS.
Source: Mass Spectrometry
Author: Ken-ichi Bajo
Institution: Hokkaido University
Language: English
Subfield: Surfaces, Coatings and Films
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7214970066