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Analytical probes capable of mapping molecular composition at the nanoscale are of critical importance to materials research, biology and medicine. However, it is challenging for mass spectral imaging to map molecular composition in three dimensions 3D with submicron resolution. These results open opportunities to visualize chemical composition and chemical changes in 3D at the nanoscale. Mass spectral imaging MSI is an essential tool for surface analysis.
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MSI has achieved high sensitivity and spatial resolution in the identification and profiling of element-specific signatures from dopants and impurities in semiconductors, metals and dielectrics.
The elemental specificity of MSI has also motivated studies in biology, medicine and environmental sciences in which fundamental molecular processes have been identified from characteristic signatures from metallic or isotopic tags 1 , 2 , 3.
Adapting MSI to molecular imaging has required the implementation of ionization strategies, which control molecular fragmentation 4. In biochemistry and medicine, molecular MSI is used, for example, in studies of metabolic exchange in microorganisms 5 and localization of drugs and metabolites in tissue 6. LDI MSI has been demonstrated using laser wavelengths ranging from the near infrared to the ultraviolet and pulse durations from nanoseconds to femtoseconds.
