A SPONTANEOUS DESORPTION SOURCE FOR POLYATOMIC ION PRODUCTION

A novel molecular ion source based on spontaneous desorption (SD) proc esses has been developed. The molecular ions from the SD source are us ed as incident particles for the production of secondary cluster and m olecular ions. The SD source presents attractive features for surface analysis and cluster ion beam production. It is shown that analytical applications can be performed with this source with better efficiency, in term of analysis time, than with fission fragment impacts used in plasma desorption mass spectrometry. Low intensity beams of clusters i ons could be produced with goad stability for a period of several week s. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.