A B-TOF mass spectrometer for the analysis of ions with extreme high start-up energies.
Weak magnetic deflection is combined with two acceleration stage time-of-flight mass spectrometry and subsequent position-sensitive ion detection. The experimental method, called B-TOF mass spectrometry, is described with respect to its theoretical background and some experimental results. It is demonstrated that the technique has distinct advantages over other approaches, with special respect to the identification and analysis of very highly energetic ions with an initially large energy broadening (up to 1 MeV) and with high charge states (up to 30+). Similar energetic targets are a common case in intense laser-matter interaction processes found during laser ablation, laser-cluster and laser-molecule interaction and fast particle and x-ray generation from laser-heated plasma.
Lezius
M
M
Institute for Ion Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria. matthias.lezius@uibk.ac.at