Ai. Saprykin, Improving the efficiency of radio-frequency glow-discharge ion sources by applying a constant magnetic field, J ANALYT CH, 54(7), 1999, pp. 671-680
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).