Collaborative Research: Development of a high-efficiency mass spectrometer: transitioning a high-efficiency ion source to a modern mass spectrometer

EAR仪器和设施计划奖(由宾夕法尼亚州立大学和华盛顿卡内基研究所合作)将支持在现代多收集器质谱仪Thermo-Fisher Triton上安装和测试新开发的高电离效率腔电离源。离子源开发之前得到了EAR/IF计划(EAR-1758571)的支持。如果成功，源增强质谱仪有望大大提高同位素比率分析的分析精度，并有可能在我们对地球和行星储存库(例如，地壳、地幔和核的分异)的早期演化的理解方面取得未来变革性的科学进展。该项目涉及一名早期职业研究人员，并将导致一种全新类型质谱计的建造和运行，如果成功，将具有商业化和更广泛社区使用的潜力。基于质谱学的同位素分析的最终精度在很大程度上受到探测器计数统计的限制。腔式离子源可能在从地质样品中产生大离子束的能力方面向前迈进一大步，并可能使其能够实现目前用现代热电离质谱仪(TIMS)无法达到的同位素比精度。支持将开发的离子源安装到现有的Thermo-Fisher Triton TIMS上，并随后进行分析测试。研究人员已经初步证明，该源产生：1)长时间的大而稳定的离子束，2)对选定元素的电离效率高于传统的平丝热电离源。震源增强型仪器在推进地球科学基本问题的研究方面具有巨大潜力，从辐射测年到追踪形成和修改地球和其他行星上各种储藏物的一级化学过程，通过大幅提高目标放射性同位素比率测定(例如，用于了解地球和太阳系最早历史的Sm/Nd系统)的分析精度，从而允许分析比目前可能的更小的稀有样品。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This EAR Instrumentation and Facilities Program award (a collaborative between Penn State and Carnegie Institution of Washington) will support the installation and testing of a newly developed, high-ionization-efficiency cavity ionization source on a modern multi-collector mass spectrometer, the Thermo-Fisher Triton. The ion source development was supported previously by the EAR/IF Program (EAR-1758571). If successful, the source augmented mass spectrometer promised significantly enhanced analytical precision for isotope ratio analysis with the potential for future transformative scientific advances in our understanding of the early evolution of Earth and planetary reservoirs (e.g., crust, mantle and core differentiation). The project involves an early career researcher and will result in construction and operation of a fundamentally new type of mass spectrometer, which if successful, has potential for commercialization and broader community use.The ultimate precision of mass spectrometry-based isotopic analyses is limited, in large part, by detector counting statistics. The cavity ion source may present a major step forward in the ability to produce large ion beams from geologic samples and may make it able to achieve isotope-ratio precisions currently unattainable with modern thermal ionization mass spectrometers (TIMS). Support will provide for installation of the developed ion source onto an existing Thermo-Fisher Triton TIMS and subsequent analytical testing. The investigators have preliminary demonstrations that the source produces: 1) large, stable ion beams for long periods of time, and 2) higher ionization efficiency than traditional flat-filament thermal ionization sources for select elements. The source-enhanced instrument has significant potential to advance research on fundamental questions in the geosciences, from radiometric dating to tracing first-order chemical processes that formed and modify various reservoirs on Earth and other planets, by providing large increases in the analytical precision achievable for targeted radiogenic isotope ratio determinations (e.g., Sm/Nd system for understanding the earliest history of Earth and the Solar System), that in allows for analysis of smaller rare samples than currently possible.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.