The IMS 1280-HR is a state of the art, large radius secondary ion microprobe, manufactured by CAMECA, France.

The instrument has an O‾ or O²‾ primary source for positive secondary ions, and a Cs+ source for negative ions. The impact of the primary beam results in sputtering of ions on the sample surface which are then accelerated through theinstrument as a secondary ion beam. This secondary ion beam is then magnified and injected into a double focusing mass spectrometer. Secondary ions are then collected by electron multipliers and/or Faraday cup detectors, either in monocollection or multicollection mode.

Isotopes of a wide range of elements (from H to U) can be measured with high analytical performance, even for low contents (<1ppm). The design of the ion probe allows precise determination of large number of isotopic systems with an excellent precision:

• Mass resolution: > 20 000
• Lateral resolution: usually 10 µm, but can reach 2 µm
• Depth resolution: hundreds of nm.