Triple Oxygen Isotope Measurements by Multi-Collector Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is a powerful technique for in situ triple oxygen isotope measurements that has been used for more than 30 years. Since pioneering works performed on small-radius ion microprobes in the mid-80s, tremendous progress has been made in terms of analytical precision, spatial resolution and analysis duration. In this respect, the emergence in the mid-90s of the large-radius ion microprobe equipped with a multi-collector system (MC-SIMS) was a game changer. Further developments achieved on CAMECA MC-SIMS since then (e.g., stability of the electronics, enhanced transmission of secondary ions, automatic centering of the secondary ion beam, enhanced control of the magnetic field, 10 12 Ω resistor for the Faraday cup amplifiers) allow nowadays to routinely measure oxygen isotopic ratios ( 18 O/ 16 O and 17 O/ 16 O) in various matrices with a precision (internal error and reproducibility) better than 0.5‰ (2σ), a spatial resolution smaller than 10 µm and in a few minutes per analysis. This paper focuses on the application of the MC-SIMS technique to the in situ monitoring of mass-independent triple oxygen isotope variations.