Light Element Analysis in Extraterrestrial Materials using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

(1) With the goal to understanding the water contents and H isotopic compositions of planetary materials, we have successfully measured anhydrous minerals (olivine and pyroxene), as well as hydrous (apatite) minerals within tiny particles collected from asteroid Itokawa and meteorites from 4 Vesta [1, 2]. We tested new procedures to do samples preparation that is crucial for these complex hydrogen analyses. It has resulted in routine measurements with low hydrogen backgrounds (< 20 ppm) with small beam sizes (< 1-2 μm).