Development of a bunching ionizer for TOF mass spectrometers with reduced resources

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kawashima, Oya, Kasahara, Satoshi, Saito, Yoshifumi, Hirahara, Masafumi, Asamura, Kazushi, Yokota, Shoichiro
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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_version_ 1866915145193619456
author Kawashima, Oya
Kasahara, Satoshi
Saito, Yoshifumi
Hirahara, Masafumi
Asamura, Kazushi
Yokota, Shoichiro
author_facet Kawashima, Oya
Kasahara, Satoshi
Saito, Yoshifumi
Hirahara, Masafumi
Asamura, Kazushi
Yokota, Shoichiro
contents In some types of mass spectrometers, such as Time of Flight mass spectrometers (TOF-MSs), it is necessary to control pulsed beams of ions. This can be easily accomplished by applying a pulsed voltage to the pusher electrode while the ionizer is continuously flowing ions. This method is preferred for its simplicity, although the ion utilization efficiency is not optimized. Here we employed another pulse-control method with a higher ion utilization rate, which is to bunch ions and kick them out instead of letting them stream. The benefit of this method is that higher sensitivity can be achieved; since the start of new ions cannot be allowed during TOF separation, it is highly advantageous to bunch ions that would otherwise be unusable. In this study, we used analytical and numerical methods to design a new bunching ionizer with reduced resources, adopting the principle of electrostatic ion beam trap. The test model experimentally demonstrated the bunching performance with respect to sample gas density and ion bunching time using gas samples and electron impact ionization. We also conducted an experiment in connection with a miniature TOF-MS, and showed that the sensitivity was improved by more than one order of magnitude using the newly developed ionizer. Since the device is capable of bunching ions with lower voltage and lower power consumption (~100 V, ~0.8 W) compared with conventional RF ion trap bunchers (several kilovolts, ~10 W), it will be possible to find applications in portable mass spectrometer with reduced resources.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_18006
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Development of a bunching ionizer for TOF mass spectrometers with reduced resources
Kawashima, Oya
Kasahara, Satoshi
Saito, Yoshifumi
Hirahara, Masafumi
Asamura, Kazushi
Yokota, Shoichiro
Accelerator Physics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Detectors
In some types of mass spectrometers, such as Time of Flight mass spectrometers (TOF-MSs), it is necessary to control pulsed beams of ions. This can be easily accomplished by applying a pulsed voltage to the pusher electrode while the ionizer is continuously flowing ions. This method is preferred for its simplicity, although the ion utilization efficiency is not optimized. Here we employed another pulse-control method with a higher ion utilization rate, which is to bunch ions and kick them out instead of letting them stream. The benefit of this method is that higher sensitivity can be achieved; since the start of new ions cannot be allowed during TOF separation, it is highly advantageous to bunch ions that would otherwise be unusable. In this study, we used analytical and numerical methods to design a new bunching ionizer with reduced resources, adopting the principle of electrostatic ion beam trap. The test model experimentally demonstrated the bunching performance with respect to sample gas density and ion bunching time using gas samples and electron impact ionization. We also conducted an experiment in connection with a miniature TOF-MS, and showed that the sensitivity was improved by more than one order of magnitude using the newly developed ionizer. Since the device is capable of bunching ions with lower voltage and lower power consumption (~100 V, ~0.8 W) compared with conventional RF ion trap bunchers (several kilovolts, ~10 W), it will be possible to find applications in portable mass spectrometer with reduced resources.
title Development of a bunching ionizer for TOF mass spectrometers with reduced resources
topic Accelerator Physics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Detectors
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.18006