Studies on reducing the scale of a double focusing mass spectrometer
Several groups have developed miniaturized sector mass spectrometers with the goal of remote sensing in confined spaces or portability. However, these achievements have been overshadowed by more successful development of man-portable quadrupole and ion trap mass spectrometers. Despite these accomplishments the development of a reduced-scale sector mass spectrometer remains attractive as a potentially low-cost, robust instrument requiring very simple electronics and low power. Previous studies on miniaturizing sector instruments include the use of a Mattauch-Herzog design for a portable mass spectrograph weighing less than 10 kg. Other work has included the use of a Nier-Johnson design in spacecraft-mountable gas chromatography mass spectrometers for the Viking spacecraft as well as miniature sector-based MS/MS instrument. Although theory for designing an optimized system with high resolution and mass accuracy is well understood, such specifications have not yet been achieved in a miniaturized instrument. To proceed further toward the development of a miniaturized sector mass spectrometer, experiments were conducted to understand and optimize a practical, yet nonideal instrument configuration. The sector mass spectrometer studied in this work is similar to the ones developed for the Viking project, but was further modified to be low cost, simple and robust. Characteristics of this instrument that highlight its simplicity include the use of a modified Varian leak detector ion source, source ion optics that use one extraction voltage, and an unshunted fixed nonhomogeneous magnetic sector. The effects of these design simplifications on ion trajectory were studied by manipulating the ion beam along with the magnetic sector position. This latter feature served as an aid to study ion focusing amidst fringing fields as well as nonhomogeneous forces and permitted empirical realignment of the instrument.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 10192684
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-112452; CONF-9305222-2; ON: DE94000392; TRN: 93:023968
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 41. American Society of Mass Spectrometry conference on mass spectrometry and allied topics,San Francisco, CA (United States),30 May - 4 Jun 1993; Other Information: PBD: May 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Development of a miniaturized, light-weight magnetic sector for a field-portable mass spectrograph
Miniature focal plane mass spectrometer with 1000-pixel modified-CCD detector array for direct ion measurement