High resolution MSI

A novel Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) instrument will be constructed to include a water cluster ion source and laser post-ionisation.

Gas cluster and water cluster ion beams will be used to reduce and control fragmentation during surface sampling and ionization. To boost sensitivity for selected analyte classes, laser post-ionisation strategies will be assessed.

With the improvements in signal to noise from both post-ionisation and high resolution mass detection, we expect that signals previously considered as ‘noise’ in other MS imaging experiments will start to reveal structural information of other, larger, analyte classes.

Project team:

• Josephine Bunch
• Zoltan Takats

Project collaborator:

• University of Manchester
• NPL