title: High dynamic range bio-molecular ion microscopy with the Timepix detector.
abstract: Highly parallel, active pixel detectors enable novel detection capabilities for large biomolecules in time-of-flight (TOF) based mass spectrometry imaging (MSI). In this work, a 512 × 512 pixel, bare Timepix assembly combined with chevron microchannel plates (MCP) captures time-resolved images of several m/z species in a single measurement. Mass-resolved ion images from Timepix measurements of peptide and protein standards demonstrate the capability to return both mass-spectral and localization information of biologically relevant analytes from matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) on a commercial ion microscope. The use of a MCP-Timepix assembly delivers an increased dynamic range of several orders of magnitude. The Timepix returns defined mass spectra already at subsaturation MCP gains, which prolongs the MCP lifetime and allows the gain to be optimized for image quality. The Timepix peak resolution is only limited by the resolution of the in-pixel measurement clock. Oligomers of the protein ubiquitin were measured up to 78 kDa.
authors: FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF), Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Julia H
authors: JH
authors: Jungmann
authors: Luke
authors: L
authors: MacAleese
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Visser
authors: Marc J J
authors: MJ
authors: Vrakking
authors: Ron M A
authors: RM
authors: Heeren
mesh_terms: D007477:Ions / Q000737:chemistry; D010455:Peptides / Q000032:analysis; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D025801:Ubiquitin / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D007477:Ions; D010455:Peptides; D025801:Ubiquitin