Materials Analysis Based on Quantitative Laser Ionization

Abstract

A new reflecting time of flight mass spectrometer is described which allows to display absolute saturation of laser ionization. For each speciflc charge q/m the new TOF instrument creates two ion bunches containing the ions originating respectively inside and outside a sharply-limited acceptance volume of the spectrometer. Thus quantification of laser ionization is possible. This method has been applied to non-resonant KrF excimer laser post-ionization of sputtered metal atoms. It may be developed into a very sensitive tooi for quantitative materials analysis.