National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO 13084:2025. It supersedes BS ISO 13084:2018, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee CII/60, Surface chemical analysis.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 October 2025.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 201, Surface chemical analysis, Subcommittee SC 6, Mass spectrometries.

This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition (ISO 13084:2018), which has been technically revised.

The main changes are as follows:

addition of informative Annex B.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is a powerful technique for the analysis of organic and molecular surfaces. Over the last decade, instrumentation has improved significantly so that modern instruments now have very high repeatability and constancy^[2^]. A growing need is for the identification of the chemical composition of complex molecules from accurate measurements of the mass of the secondary ions. The relative mass accuracy to do this and to distinguish between molecules that contain different chemical constituents, but are of the same nominal mass (rounded to the nearest integer mass), is thus an important parameter. A relative mass accuracy of better than 10 ppm is required to distinguish between C₂H₄ (28,031 30 u) and Si (27,976 92 u) in a parent ion with total mass up to 1 000 u, and between CH₂ (14,015 65 u) and N (14,003 07 u) in parent ions with total mass up to 300 u. However, in a recent interlaboratory study^[3^], the average fractional mass accuracy was found to be 150 ppm, which is significantly worse than the accuracy needed for unambiguous identification of ions. A detailed study^[4^] shows that the key factors degrading the accuracy include the large kinetic energy distribution of secondary ions, non-optimized instrument parameters and extrapolation of the mass scale calibration.

This document describes a simple method, using locally sourced material, to optimize the instrumental parameters, as well as a procedure to ensure that accurate calibration of the mass scale is achieved within a selectable uncertainty.

1 Scope

This document specifies a method to optimize the mass calibration accuracy in time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) instruments used for general analytical purposes. This document is only applicable to time-of-flight instruments but is not restricted to any particular instrument design. This document gives guidance for some of the instrumental parameters that can be optimized using this procedure and the types of generic peaks suitable to calibrate the mass scale for optimum mass accuracy.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Symbols and abbreviated terms

4.1 Symbols

4.2 Abbreviated terms

5 Outline of method

6 Method for improving mass accuracy

6.1 Obtaining the reference sample for optimization

6.2 Preparation of polycarbonate sample

6.3 Obtaining the SIMS spectral data

6.4 Calculating mass accuracy

6.5 Optimizing instrumental parameters

6.6 Calibration procedure

Bibliography

BS ISO 13084:2025

Surface chemical analysis. Mass spectrometries. Calibration of the mass scale for a time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer

Current

Published:

31 Oct 2025