Surface Volatile Material Detector including a vacuum chamber that is adapted to hold a silicon wafer for testing. The surface of the wafer is exposed to a heat source which evaporates the volatile contaminants on the surface of the wafer. A gas composition analyzer samples the atmosphere within the chamber to detect the evaporated contaminants. The device is designed such that the wafer is thermally insulated from the chamber, whereby the wafer is heated while the chamber walls remain cool, and any contaminants which might exist on the walls of the chamber are not evaporated. In the preferred embodiment, the wafer is heated by infrared light illumination.