Dr. Luca Tortora: "What’s this & where is located? Energetic ion bombardment as a tool for chemical surface analysis and depth profiling".

Monday 19 Dec 2016, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula C (Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica)

Abstract: Identification, characterization, and spatial localization of elements and molecules are key steps for a detailed chemical analysis of a surface or solid. Elements and molecules constituting the surface can be collected and identified as ionized particles when the surface is bombarded by energetic primary particles (atomic, small cluster, large cluster or polyatomic ions). This is called secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). SIMS and in particular static SIMS is one of the most surface sensitive analytical technique. Ions, isotopes, molecular compounds such as polymers, organic compounds as well as biomolecules (lipids and amino acids) can be detected with high mass resolution and a nanometer spatial resolution. This presentation will be focused on the application of ion bombardment experiments in different fields ranging from material science to biomedical field, passing through cultural heritage. In particular, different ion bombardment experiments aimed to better understand the chemistry of materials or obtain high spatial resolution chemical mapping will be presented. Furthermore, the use of multivariate methods for mass spectra and image analysis will be showed. Finally, a brief presentation regarding Montecarlo and molecular dynamic investigations, aimed at understanding the collision cascades during SIMS experiments, will be discussed.