Laser Probe Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer

A laser probe time-of-flight mass spectrometer was designed and built in Xiamen University. In this instrument, the solid sample is vaporized and ionized with a focused pulsed laser beam, and the generated laser plasma is mass analyzed with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The instrument features with the unique designe of the location and oreintation of the sample holder relative to the acceleration setup in the spectrometer. With this design, the surface of the sample is perpendicular to the prob-laser beam and parallel with the acceleration direction off the ions. The advantages of the design are that both positive and negative ions can be mass analyszed coincidently and much better mass resolution is achieved. With the self-writing software and home-made hardwares, the whole instrument is completely under the control of a micro-computer. Since its build-up, the studies carried on this instrument has already got quite a lot interested experimental results in various areas, and some of them were briefly introduced in this paper. During these succesful studies, the instrument has proved its extensive research abilities.