From vacuum to atmospheric pressure: A review of ambient ion soft landing

The capability to deposit intact highly pure ionic species makes ion soft landing an advantageous mass spectrometric method able to create molecular layers on solid surfaces. Recent advances in this technique gave the possibility to manipulate solvent-free ions in open-air conditions. The high ionic current produced by the new sources as well as the developments of accelerated systems dramatically increase the efficiency of the soft landing process, opening new opportunities for surface modification with self-organized polyatomic structures. This review reports the developments of the ambient ion soft landing, highlights its most recent applications and discusses future perspectives.