Recently, mass spectrometry techniques such as laser ablation and static secondary ion mass spectrometry (LA-MS and s-SIMS, respectively) have been successfully applied to the characterization of inorganic compounds in solid state phase: s-SIMS is known as a surface analytical technique whereas LA-MS involves atoms in a greater thickness (bulk). In the case of s-SIMS, the direct ejection of ions from the surface upon primary ion sputtering for ion fluence down to 10(13) ions/cm(2), leads to a simple and direct diagnostic by comparing the spectra to databases. On the opposite, characterization of inorganic compounds by means of LA-MS is not immediate due to the most detected ions are issued from complex gas phase reactions. This feature can be successfully applied to investigate matter transfer processes occurring during pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) experiments. By the mean of a systematic and comparative study of LA-MS and s-SlMS spectra for binary (Cu-O) or ternary (Fe-Cr-O) oxide systems, we demonstrate that both techniques are complementary to each other in the field of material science. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.