Nanometer scale elemental analysis in the helium ion microscope using time of flight spectrometry

Time of flight Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (ToF–RBS) was successfully implemented in a helium ion microscope (HIM). Its integration introduces the ability to perform laterally resolved elemental analysis as well as elemental depth profiling on the nm scale. A lateral resolution of ≤ 54 nm and a time resolution of ∆t ≤ 17 ns (∆t/t = 5.4%) are achieved. By using the energy of the backscattered particles for contrast generation, we introduce a new imaging method to the HIM allowing direct elemental mapping as well as local spectrometry. In addition laterally resolved time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF–SIMS) can be performed with the same setup. Time of flight is implemented by pulsing the primary ion beam. This is achieved in a cost effective and minimal invasive way that does not influence the high resolution capabilities of the microscope when operating in standard secondary electron (SE) imaging mode. This technique can thus be easily adapted to existing devices. The particular implementation of ToF–RBS and ToF–SIMS techniques are described, results are presented and advantages, difficulties and limitations of this new techniques are discussed.