09255 IUPAC Gold Book - impact energy 10.1351/goldbook.09255 09255 current 1 Kinetic energy of particles on impact with a sample surface. For primary-ion beams in secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), the ion impact energy is given by the difference in electric potential between the ion source and the sample surface multiplied by the charge on the ion. In some SIMS systems, the beam energy is given for the source potential with respect to ground, but the sample potential need not be at ground. The impact energy takes account of any sample potential. Use of the qualifier “impact” indicates that this is the energy of the particles striking the surface. secondary-ion mass spectrometry https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09192 PAC, 2020, 92, 1781. 'Glossary of methods and terms used in surface chemical analysis (IUPAC Recommendations 2020)' on page 1805 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0404) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09255/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09255/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09255/plain Citation: 'impact energy' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.09255 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-08-07T03:40:57+00:00