Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is a sophisticated analytical technique for determining the elements present in materials, and especially on surfaces, with trace level sensitivity and high spatial resolution. The aim of this article is to give a short introduction to the SIMS technique and to focus then on selected case studies of mass transport in oxides over various length scales. It is shown that SIMS is capable of analysing diffusion profiles on a broad length scale, from some tens of nanometres to several hundred micrometres, which makes it possible to measure diffusion coefficients from about 10–18 cm2 s–1 to 10–6 cm2 s–1. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)