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A novel approach to elastic recoil analysis of light elements in high atomic mass materials is presented based on time of flight detection. TOF spectra of recoils induced by 20 MeV Ar ions, after a 1 m flight path, have the unique characteristics of inverting the in-depth mass sequences, allowing such unusual depth profiling. Depth resolutions below 10 nm are reported for oxygen and carbon in heavy materials like titanium with detection limits in the order of 10 15 at/cm 2 . No absorbers are required for such an analysis, for which improvements of the analyzing depth and the sensitivity are proposed.