Patent ID: 8399834

Claim:
A method, comprising: selecting a first gas to be used in gas assisted chemistry of a sample; using a gas field ion source to form a beam of ions of an isotope of a noble gas; and interacting ions of the isotope of the noble gas in the beam of ions with the first gas to perform gas assisted chemistry on the sample, wherein: the isotope of the noble gas is selected from the group consisting of He-3, Ne-20, Ne-22, Ar-36, Ar-38, Kr-78, Kr-80, Kr-82, Kr-83, Xe-124, Xe-126, Xe-128, Xe-129, Xe-130, Xe-131, Xe-132, Xe-134 and Xe-136; and an amount of the ions of the isotope of the noble gas is greater than a natural abundance of the isotope of the noble gas.