Mechanism of the SIMS matrix effect

Abstract
Quantization of ion microprobe mass spectrometric analyses has been complicated by the variation in the ion yield of an element contained in different matrices. This work demonstrates that, for O and Cs+ bombardment, these ion‐yield variations are solely attributable to variations in the matrix sputtering yield. It is argued that the matrix sputtering yield determines the near‐surface concentration of the ion‐yield‐enhancing species O and Cs.