Improving the efficiency of radio-frequency glow-discharge ion sources by applying a constant magnetic field

A radio-frequency glow-discharge ion source with an additional magnet (plan ar magnetron) was proposed for the effective sputtering and ionization of g lasses and ceramics in analytical mass spectrometry. The composition and en ergy distribution of ions was studied as functions of power and pressure. T he optimization of the working parameters of the ion source provided a four fold increase in the analytical signal and a tenfold decrease in the backgr ound signal due to molecular ions. Analytical characteristics of the propos ed method were estimated using NIST SRM standard reference glass materials. It was shown that, for impurity elements whose analytical lines do not ove rlap with peaks of molecular ions, detection limits are 10-100 ng/g at a ma ss resolution of 300 and approximately by one order of magnitude higher at a mass resolution of 3000. The repeatability of the results of analysis is characterized by RSD = 5-15%. The relative sensitivity coefficients of elem ents lie within one order of magnitude (0.2-3).