Effect of energy per atom (E/n) on the Ar gas cluster ion beam (Ar-GCIB) and O2+ cosputter process.

Gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) is a promising technique for preserving molecular structures during ion sputtering and successfully profiling biological and soft materials. However, although GCIB yields lower damage accumulation compared with C60+ and monoatomic ion beams, the inevitable alteration of the chemical structure can introduce artifacts into the resulting depth profile. To enhance the ionization yield and further mask damage, a low-energy O2+ (200-500 V) cosputter can be applied. While the energy per atom (E/n) of GCIB is known to be an important factor influencing the sputter process, the manner through which E/n affects the GCIB-O2+ cosputter process remains unclear. In this study, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was used as a model material to investigate the sputter process of 10-20 kV Ar1000-4000+ (E/n = 2.5-20 eV per atom) with and without O2+ cosputter at different energies and currents. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) with Bi32+ as the primary ion was used to examine surfaces sputtered at different fluences. The sputter craters were also measured by alpha-step and atomic force microscopy in quantitative imaging mode. The SIMS results showed that the steady-state cannot be obtained with E/n values of less than 5 eV per atom due to damage accumulation using single GCIB sputtering. With a moderate E/n value of 5-15 eV per atom, the steady-state can be obtained, but the ∼50% decay in intensity indicated that damage cannot be masked completely despite the higher sputter yield. Furthermore, the surface Young's modulus decreased with increasing E/n, suggesting that depolymerization occurred. At an E/n value of 20 eV per atom, a failed profile was obtained with rapidly decreased sputter rate and secondary ion intensity due to the ion-induced crosslink. With O2+ cosputtering and a moderate E/n value, the oxidized species generated by O2+ enhanced the ionization yield, which led to a higher ion intensity at steady-state in general. Because higher kinetic energy or current density of O2+ led to a larger interaction volume and more structural damage that suppressed molecular ion intensity, the enhancement from O2+ was most apparent with low-energy-high-current (200 V, 80 µA cm-2) or high-energy-low-current (500 V, 5 µA cm-2) O2+ cosputtering with 0.5 µA cm-2 GCIBs. In these cases, little or no intensity drop was observed at the steady-state.

Improvement of the gas cluster ion beam-(GCIB)-based molecular secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) depth profile with O2(+) cosputtering.

Over the last decade, cluster ion beams have displayed their capability to analyze organic materials and biological specimens. Compared with atomic ion beams, cluster ion beams non-linearly enhance the sputter yield, suppress damage accumulation and generate high mass fragments during sputtering. These properties allow successful Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis of soft materials beyond the static limit. Because the intensity of high mass molecular ions is intrinsically low, enhancing the intensity of these secondary ions while preserving the sample in its original state is the key to highly sensitive molecular depth profiles. In this work, bulk poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was used as a model material and analyzed using Time-of-Flight SIMS (ToF-SIMS) with a pulsed Bi3(2+) primary ion. The optimized hardware of a 10 kV Ar2500(+) Gas Cluster Ion Beam (GCIB) with a low kinetic energy (200-500 V) oxygen ion (O2(+)) as a cosputter beam was employed for generating depth profiles and for examining the effect of beam parameters. The results were then quantitatively analyzed using an established erosion model. It was found that the ion intensity of the PET monomer ([M + H](+)) and its large molecular fragment ([M - C2H4O + H](+)) steadily declined during single GCIB sputtering, with distortion of the distribution information. However, under an optimized GCIB-O2(+) cosputter, the secondary ion intensity quickly reached a steady state and retained >95% intensity with respect to the pristine surface, although the damage cross-section was larger than that of single GCIB sputtering. This improvement was due to the oxidation of molecules and the formation of -OH groups that serve as proton donors to particles emitted from the surface. As a result, the ionization yield was enhanced and damage to the chemical structure was masked. Although O2(+) is known to alter the chemical structure and cause damage accumulation, the concurrently used GCIB could sufficiently remove the surface layer and allow the damage to be masked by the enhanced ionization yield when the ion-solid interaction volume was kept shallow with a low O2(+) energy. This low O2(+) energy (200 V) cosputtering also produced a smoother surface than a single GCIB. Because the oxidized species were produced by O2(+) and removed by GCIB simultaneously, a sufficiently high O2(+) current density was required to produce adequate enhancements. Therefore, it was found that 10 kV with 2 × 10(-6) A per cm(2) Ar2500(+) and 200 V with 3.2 × 10(-4) A per cm(2) O2(+) produced the best profile.

Effect of surface potential on extracellular matrix protein adsorption.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, such as fibronectin, laminin, and collagen IV, play important roles in many cellular behaviors, including cell adhesion and spreading. Understanding their adsorption behavior on surfaces with different natures is helpful for studying the cellular responses to environments. By tailoring the chemical composition in binary acidic (anionic) and basic (cationic) functionalized self-assembled monolayer (SAM)-modified gold substrates, variable surface potentials can be generated. To examine how surface potential affects the interaction between ECM proteins and substrates, a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation detection (QCM-D) was used. To study the interaction under physiological conditions, the ionic strength and pH were controlled using phosphate-buffered saline at 37 °C, and the ζ potentials of the SAM-modified Au and protein were determined using an electrokinetic analyzer and phase analysis light scattering, respectively. During adsorption processes, the shifts in resonant frequency (f) and energy dissipation (D) were acquired simultaneously, and the weight change was calculated using the Kelvin-Voigt model. The results reveal that slightly charged protein can be adsorbed on a highly charged SAM, even where both surfaces are negatively charged. This behavior is attributed to the highly charged SAM, which polarizes the protein microscopically, and the Debye interaction, as well as other short-range interactions such as steric force, hydrogen bonding, direct bonding, charged domains within the protein structure, etc., that allow adsorption, although the macroscopic electrostatic interaction discourages adsorption. For surfaces with a moderate potential, proteins are not significantly polarized by the surface, and the interaction can be predicted through simple electrostatic attraction. Furthermore, surface-induced self-assembly of protein molecules also affects the adsorbed structures and kinetics. The adsorbed layer properties, such as rigidity and packing behaviors, were further investigated using the D-f plot and phase detection microscopy (PDM) imaging.

Integration of paper-based microarray and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) for parallel detection and quantification of molecules in multiple samples automatically.

With its low-cost fabrication and ease of modification, paper-based analytical devices have developed rapidly in recent years. Microarrays allow automatic analysis of multiple samples or multiple reactions with minimal sample consumption. While cellulose paper is generally used, its high backgrounds in spectrometry outside of the visible range has limited its application to be mostly colorimetric analysis. In this work, glass-microfiber paper is used as the substrate for a microarray. The glass-microfiber is essentially chemically inert SiOx, and the lower background from this inorganic microfiber can avoid interference from organic analytes in various spectrometers. However, generally used wax printing fails to wet glass microfibers to form hydrophobic barriers. Therefore, to prepare the hydrophobic-hydrophilic pattern, the glass-microfiber paper was first modified with an octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) self-assembled monolayer (SAM) to make the paper hydrophobic. A hydrophilic microarray was then prepared using a CO2 laser scriber that selectively removed the OTS layer with a designed pattern. One microliter of aqueous drops of peptides at various concentrations were then dispensed inside the round patterns where OTS SAM was removed while the surrounding area with OTS layer served as a barrier to separate each drop. The resulting specimen of multiple spots was automatically analyzed with a time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer (ToF-SIMS), and all of the secondary ions were collected. Among the various cluster ions that have developed over the past decade, pulsed C60+ was selected as the primary ion because of its high secondary ion intensity in the high mass region, its minimal alteration of the surface when operating within the static-limit and spatial resolution at the ∼µm level. In the resulting spectra, parent ions of various peptides (in the forms [M+H]+ and [M+Na]+) were readily identified for parallel detection of molecules in a mixture. By normalizing the ion intensity of peptides with respect to the glass-microfiber matrix ([SiOH]+), a linear calibration curve for each peptide was generated to quantify these components in a mixture.

Effect of surface potential on epithelial cell adhesion, proliferation and morphology.

Cell adhesion is the basis of individual cell survival, division and motility. Hence, understanding the effects that the surface properties have on cell adhesion, proliferation and morphology are crucial. In particular, surface charge/potential has been identified as an important factor that affects cell behavior. However, how cells respond to incremental changes in surface potential remains unclear. By using binary self-assembled monolayer (SAM) modified Au surfaces that are similar in mechanical/chemical properties and provide a series of surface potentials, the effect of surface potential on the behavior of cells can be studied. In this work, the effect of surface potential on epithelial cells, including human embryonic kidney (HEK293T) and human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2), were examined. The results showed that the adhesion density of epithelial cells increased with increasing surface potential, which is similar to but varied more significantly compared with fibroblasts. The proliferation rate is found to be independent of surface potential in both cell types. Furthermore, epithelial cells show no morphological change with respect to surface potential, whereas the morphology of the fibroblasts clearly changed with the surface potential. These differences between the cell types were rationalized by considering the difference in extracellular matrix composition. Laminin-dominant epithelial cells showed higher adhesion density and less morphological change than did fibronectin-dominant fibroblasts because the more significant adsorption of positively charged laminin on the surface enhanced the adhesion of epithelial cells. In contrast, due to the dominance of negatively charged fibronectin that adsorbed weakly on the surface, fibroblasts had to change their morphology to fit the inhomogeneous fibronectin-adsorbed area.