Organic secondary ion mass spectrometry: signal enhancement by water vapor injection.

The enhancement of the static secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) signals resulting from the injection, closely to the sample surface, of H(2)O vapor at relatively high-pressure, was investigated for a set of organic materials. While the ion signals are generally improved with increasing H(2)O pressure upon 12 keV Ga(+) bombardment, a specific enhancement of the protonated ion intensity is clearly demonstrated in each case. For instance, the presence of H(2)O vapor induces an enhancement by one order of magnitude of the [M + H](+) static SIMS intensity for the antioxidant Irgafos 168 and a ∼1.5-fold increase for polymers such as poly(vinyl pyrrolidone).