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News Archive  2007 2006 2005 20042003200220012000 05/17/2004 16th International Vacuum Congress-Venice For those of you who would like to go to a good Conference and Exhibition in a beautiful city, we suggest you consider IVC16/ ICSS-12/NANO-8/AIV-17 taking place on the Lido di Venezia June 29 to July 01(www.ivc16.infm.it). ION -TOF will have a stand at the exhibition, where over 50 companies will be represented publicizing vacuum and analysis techniques. Sven Kayser and Colin Helliwell will be on the ION-TOF stand (No 26 on the first floor). We shall be pleased to see you there to renew old acquaintances and present the latest in TOF-SIMS technology. 05/17/2004 First commercial TOF-SIMS in Spain We recently delivered a TOF-SIMS to the University of Vigo in Spain. This is the first commercially designed TOF-SIMS to be installed in Spain, to our knowledge, and we are proud that it is an ION-TOF instrument. The instrument is located in the C.A.C.T.I. institute in the University, in the Surface Analysis Service, which already has XPS, AFM-STM, a nanoindenter and a profilometer. The addition of TOF-SIMS gives them a powerful range of instruments for their work. As in many academic institutions, their planned applications are wide: Semiconductors, Nano technology, Biomaterials, Corrosion studies, and PZT analysis. Although acting as a Service Centre for the University, CACTI has time available for service and collaboration with academic and commercial analysts outside the University. If you are interested, please contact Carmen Serra Rodriquez, on cserrs@uvigo.es. 05/26/2004 Bismuth Product Announcement - Key technology for molecular spectroscopy and imaging New Level of Spectroscopy and Imaging Performance With the development of the new Bismuth Liquid Metal Ion Source, ION-TOF has reached a new level of molecular spectroscopy and imaging performance. The goal was to design a source which is superior to the current Gold Liquid Metal Ion Source in terms of measurement speed, sensitivity for high mass molecular species, image spatial resolution and mass resolution under cluster bombardment. At the 17th SIMS Workshop ION-TOF announced that this goal had been successfully achieved and that the Bismuth source would be commercially available very soon. The new emitter will be available in autumn 2004. The market reaction so far suggests that Bismuth will replace Gold. 06/07/2004 4th European Workshop on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry The 4th European Workshop will be held at the University of Muenster, September 26-29, 2004. As before, emphasis will be put on the analytical applications of SIMS in well-established fields such as microelectronics, but also in particular in emerging fields such as life sciences and nano-technologies. Recognized invited speakers will present keynote lectures, followed by contributed paper and poster sessions. The workshops on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, held at the University of Muenster in 1998, 2000 and 2002, were attended by approximately 200 participants from many countries, so confirming that such a European workshop, alternating with the biennial International SIMS Conference, meets the needs of both the European and the international SIMS community. For detailed information please contact: Physics Department of the University of Muenster, Wilhelm-Klemm Str. 10, 48149 Muenster, Germany, Phone: +49 (0)251 83 33611, Fax: +49 (0)251 83 33682, e-mail: bennial@uni-muenster.de We are looking forward to seeing you in Muenster this September! 07/21/2004 UniS, first to buy a C60 Source The University of Surrey, Guildford, UK have ordered a TOF.SIMS 5 for their UniS Materials Institute. We are delighted that one of our instruments will be installed in this very experienced surface analysis laboratory. The professor in charge is John F Watts, Professor of Materials Science and an adhesion specialist, and one of the senior operators will be Dr Marie-Laure Abel, who holds a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. The instrument will be the first in the race to be equipped with the recently announced C60 source. We look forward to the UniS team showing us what this source can do for real world analysis. The TOF.SIMS 5 will be also equipped with a gold cluster LMIG and a custom built UHV connected preparation chamber so that surface analysis can be combined with on-line electrochemistry, controlled strain rate and impact fracture, t-peeling test of laminate systems, and a range of deposition techniques. If you would like more information about the UniS laboratory, please use our enquiry page. TOF.SIMS 5 with a custom built UHV connected preparation chamber 09/21/2004 Institute of the Chemistry of Natural Substances (ICSN/CNRS) installs a TOF-SIMS for Biomedical Tissue Correlation analysis of a mouse brain section. Fe (red) phospholipids (green) cholesterol (blue) The uses of TOF-SIMS for materials surface and interface applications in metallurgy, inorganic and organic chemistry are well known and very successful. The use of TOF-SIMS for bio-medical applications has been pursued by some researchers for many years, but progress has been slow. Many users are successfully analyzing bio-materials, the materials used for medical implants, and the polymers involved in the controlled release of medicine into the body, but the break through for analyzing tissue has been the introduction of the polyatomic ion source to provide dramatically improved imaging of bio-organic molecules. A group of researchers at the CNRS site, ICSN (Pr. J.-Y. Lallemand, Director) at Gif sur Yvette, near Paris, saw the potential of these recent source developments and were able to present a very strong case for purchase. Their instrument is now installed and the first results already being published. The Group comes from a MALDI and electrospray mass spectroscopy background and includes Olivier Laprévote , Group Leader, Frédéric Halgand, David Touboul, and Alain Brunelle, who is a Physicist with long experience in ion optics and the desorption phenomena induced by cluster ion impacts on surfaces. They see the TOF-SIMS as the ideal complement to their MALDI instruments. The group is perfecting a sample preparation technique which requires no staining or marking of the thin tissue sample, since TOF-SIMS has a mass range up to many thousands of Daltons and different molecules can be co-localized direct, without the need to “tag” them and possibly modify them with elemental ions. Those readers of this who are involved in biochemistry should follow the work of this research group. We look forward to more of their exciting results. References so far are : Tissue Molecular Ion Imaging by Gold Cluster Ion Bombardment D. Touboul, F. Halgand, A. Brunelle, R. Kersting, E. Tallarek, B. Hagenhoff, O. Laprévote, Anal. Chem. 76 (2004) 1550-1559 dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac035243z Changes of Phospholipid Composition within Dystrophic Muscle by Maldi-TOF-Mass Spectrometry and Mass Spectrometry Imaging D. Touboul, H. Piednoël, V. Voisin, S. De La Porte, A. Brunelle, F. Halgand and O. Laprévote, Eur. J. Mass Spectrom, in press Direct Mapping on Muscle Tissues Slices of Duchenne Myopathy Biomarkers using both MALDI and Cluster-SIMS Imaging Mass Spectrometry A. Brunelle, D. Touboul, S. De La Porte, E. Tallarek, B. Hagenhoff, F. Halgand, O. Laprévote Proceedings of the 52nd ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, Nashville, Tennessee, May 23 - 27, 2004 For more information, please contact ION-TOF Sales or Alain Brunelle 09/22/2004 Nano-molecular Analysis for Emerging Technologies The National Physical Laboratory(NPL), London, UK is holding a two day conference, 2nd and 3rd November, for those interested in the analysis of complex molecules at surfaces. The first day is devoted to SPM and the second to SIMS, and on both days topics in the vanguard of development and research will be discussed. There is an impressive list of international known invited speakers for both these techniques. The local NPL organizers are themselves established surface analysts, and this will ensure a well structured conference. The registration cost has been kept to a minimum. 10/26/2004 ION-TOF User Meeting 2004 Steam train No. 24009, © Eisenbahn-Tradition e.V. Our 2004 Users Meeting, the third, was held immediately following the SIMS Europe Workshop. The Users arrived at our Workshop exhibition stand immediately after Professor Benninghoven’s closing address, under threat that if they didn’t arrive on time the busses would leave without them. And so about 85 of us were loaded into two busses. The first event was the social evening, the venues for which, as usual, were kept a secret, but as we neared Muenster’s main railway station and the Users were told to assemble on platform 9, thoughts of the Hogwarts Express came to mind. Efforts to persuade people to push through brick walls and notice boards were to no avail, but eventually our vintage steam train, with refurbished 1928 carriages, arrived. The journey took us north of Muenster to Hafen-Saerbeck through pleasant countryside of the Teutoburger Wald. The noise and smell were very reminiscent of passed times, for those old enough to remember! The centre carriage was a refreshment car and the service provided by German gentlemen wearing traditional and very Teutonic looking uniforms. Some passengers were allowed on the driver’s footplate, and the train steam whistle was frequently heard. At our destination, the coaches were waiting to take us back to Muenster, to a large restaurant near the Aasee. Food, drink and good company were plentiful, and the hard core carried on until 4.00 a.m.. The following day we assembled once again, now in the Technology Centre very near ION-TOF, for a program of talks. ION-TOF staff presented the TOF.SIMS 5, the new Bi and C60 sources, and the many TOF-SIMS IV upgrade possibilities. Some of the Users presented their establishments and their work, and were duly rewarded with a gift to remind them of Muenster. Later in the day Users were given the opportunity to speak personally to the ION-TOF experts, and naturally all had the opportunity for a tour of the new factory. The feedback was very positive and encouraging, so we propose to keep this format for future meetings. After flights over Muenster at the previous Meeting and a steam train at this, we shall have to work hard to find another interesting social event. The room in the Technology Centre currently used will not be big enough next time, since the number of Users will have grown considerably, but finding larger lecture rooms close-by on the University campus will not be difficult. Steam train waiting inside Muenster´s mail railway station 11/08/2004 University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield, long associated with the city’s traditional metallurgical industry, has been developing rapidly into other material research fields in recent years, and has attracted some high profile research staff. In particular, recent recruits have included Professor Graham Leggett (Chemistry) and Drs Sally McArthur and Alex Shard (Engineering Materials), all with extensive surface analysis experience. It is therefore not surprising that the University used some of its infrastructure funding to buy a TOF-SIMS, which will be delivered next May, to be installed in a newly refurbished laboratory. The interests of this group of researchers encompass nanometre scale chemistry, adhesion, surface patterning, tissue engineering and biomaterials, with organic materials (including polymers, plasma polymers and self-assembled monolayers) being a key theme running through all of these areas. This is an area of research for which TOF-SIMS is very well suited, and we are sure they will produce some very interesting developments. For more information regarding this laboratory, please contact Graham Leggett or use the enquiry page on this web-site.