Laser ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer with an ion guide collision cell for elemental analysis of solids

Abstract

A laser ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer with an ion guide collision cell has been developed for the elemental analysis of solids. The system has successfully solved the contradiction between resolution and ions with large kinetic energy generated in the ion source (with 10⁹–10¹⁰ W cm⁻² laser irradiation flux). It demonstrates near-uniform sensitivity coefficients for different elements. There are very few interferences from the gas species and doubly charged species in the spectra, and their intensities are so low that they can be ignored. With these achievements, semi-quantitative multielemental analysis is possible with no standard required. Furthermore, unlike other laser ablation and ionization mass spectrometry techniques, no mathematical adjustment is needed in this technique. The ratios of the individual elemental signals to the summed signal from all detected elements could be used to produce percent composition values directly.