A High-Resolution, Single Ion Sensitivity Video System for Secondary Ion Microscopy

In order to fully utilize the ion microscopy capabilities of SIMS instrumentation such as the CAMECA IMS-3F, an imaging system capable of single ion detection with 512 × 512 resolution and more than eight orders of magnitude dynamic range is needed. Such a system has been assembled from commercially available video equipment,which additionally features virtually unlimited optical laser disk image storage, alphanumeric image labeling, and polaroid instant film copies of stored ion images. The modular system additionally offers speed, versatility and ease of use.