Isotopically labelled material

Being a mass spectrometry technique, SIMS can determine the isotopic composition of a material. This is particularly useful when investigating diffusion within layers. Here a very sharp isotopically pure ⁵⁴Fe layer is clearly defined with excellent depth resolution, grown within a thicker layer of natural isotopic abundance.

Nuclear fusion produces very high energy protons which implant in the reactor walls. Here SIMS has been used to detect deuterium implanted into tungsten as a simulation for the material effects in a fusion reactor wall.