Molecular ion yield enhancement induced by gold deposition in static secondary ion mass spectrometry

Static ToF-SIMS was used to evaluate the effect of gold condensation as a sample treatment prior to analysis. The experiments were carried out with a model molecular layer (Triacontane M = 422.4 Da), upon atomic (In⁺) and polyatomic (Bi₃⁺) projectile bombardment. The results indicate that the effect of molecular ion yield improvement using gold metallization exists only under atomic projectile impact. While the quasi-molecular ion (M+Au)⁺ signal can become two orders of magnitude larger than that of the deprotonated molecular ion from the pristine sample under In⁺ bombardment, it barely reaches the initial intensity of (M−H)⁺ when Bi₃⁺ projectiles are used. The differences observed for mono- and polyatomic primary ion bombardment might be explained by differences in near-surface energy deposition, which influences the sputtering and ionization processes.