Development of Orthogonal Acceleration Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer for Detection of Ions with Wide Energies Distribution

Abstract A time-of-flight mass spectrometer was developed for the detection of ions with wide energies distribution. The instrument associated with an electron impact source. The ions flow was effectively modulated by a lens system and then introduced into the time-of-flight mass analyzer which included a dual field of acceleration region, a reflection region, and a large-size micro channel plate (MCP) detection device. The characteristics of the spectrometer were as follows: half-peak width of single ion signal was about 2 ns, resolution of the instrument was better than 1600 FWHM, mass range of actual samples was 1–127 amu in comparison with the theoretical mass detection limit of higher than 800 amu, and ion energy detection range was better than two orders of magnitude (3–140 eV). If coupled with short-instantaneous pulse discharge ion source, the TOF mass analyzer would be used in the field of rapid detection of high-energy ion beam, such as vacuum cathode discharge preparation of thin films, ion injection material characterization, ion charge state distribution of conductive material and determination of ion diffusion speed.