SIMS Facility
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is a highly sensitive surface analytical method that can investigate the chemical character of a solid substrate. The technique uses a range of incident ion sources to impact on solid surfaces and generate secondary ions that can be analysed by either a high mass resolution Orbitrap analyser or a high imaging resolution time of flight (ToF) analyser. A single secondary ion mass spectrum can be used to describe the constituents of one point on a surface. Alternatively, if the incident beam is rastered across several points within a given surface area, it is possible to build a chemical image map of that surface. It is also possible to sputter through the top layers of inorganic or organic surfaces while monitoring the 3D profile of elemental or molecular species (i.e. depth profiling).
UoN SIMS Facility
The OrbiSIMS facility was set up with a £2.5m EPSRC Strategic Equipment Award ‘3D OrbiSIMS: Label free chemical imaging of materials, cells and tissues’ 2017-2023 (EP/P029868/1). The capability of the facility has grown from this initial investment, now including a second ToF-SIMS instrument and employing 3 members of staff to manage the facility and its userbase, undertake data acquisition, provide researcher supervision, conduct training and respond to external enquiries.
Prof. Morgan Alexander
Prof of Biomedical Sciences
Facility Director
Dr. David Scurr
Principal Research Fellow
Facility Co-Director
Dr. Anna Kotowska
Senior Research Fellow
Facility Manager
Dr. Nichola Starr
Research Fellow
Facility Manager
Dr. Li (Jennifer) Lu
Research Fellow
Facility Manager
Research Highlights
See a full list of our recent publications here.
Collaborators
Our facility collaborates with a wide range of parnters worldwide, both academic and commercial. These collaborations span a wide range of industries and sample types, as highlighted by the examples below. We are always on the look out for new collaborations!
Events and Awards
1. PhD Student Anna Trzaska receiving the Crossley Award at the UKSAF Winter Meeting 2025 for best industrial related presentation. 2. PhD Student Reece Franklin receiving the Seah Award at the UKSAF Summer Meeting 2024 for best overall presentation. 3. Professor Morgan Alexander receiving the Rivière Prize at the UKSAF Summer Meeting 2024 for recognition of the long-term major impact his research has had in the field of surface analysis. 4. PhD student Anna Trzaska receiving the Rowland and Christine Hill Student Award for an outstanding research oral presentation at the SIMS International conference 2024. 5. PhD student Madeline Berrow receiving the AVS Poster prize for an exceptional poster presentation at the SIMS International conference 2024. 6. Poster presentation at the SIMS Europe Conference in 2023, organised by UoN and held outside Münster for the first time. 7. Professor Paul Brown, Professor Martyn Davies, Professor Ian Gilmore, Professor Morgan Alexander and Dr. David Scurr at the launch of the OrbiSIMS facility in the nmRC, 2019. 8. Professor Morgan Alexander, Professor Martyn Davies and Dr. David Scurr in the new OrbiSIMS lab at the nmRC, 2019. 9. UoN and NPL having a joint dinner together at the SIMS international conference 2024. 10. Dr. David Scurr receiving the AVS ASSD Peter Sherwood Mid-Career Award for exceptional progress in R&D