New Mass Spectrometers

西南研究院的研究团队正在开发两个新的质谱仪系统：1)便携式实时激光烧蚀共振电离质谱仪(LARIMS)，以实现原位同位素测量；2)旋转场质谱仪(RFMS)，用于在高冲击波环境中测量残余气体。对于LARIMS来说，它们不仅扩大了对基本原子过程的基本物理理解，而且还探索了能够对痕量同位素和元素系统进行实时原位同位素测量的方法。通过使用LARIMS而不是TIMS或SIMS，初步结果表明，激光和质谱仪系统可以便携用于实时野外使用，同时保持足够的精确度和准确度，以便能够进行地质年代学、地理定位、法医学、考古学、食物追踪和研究核过程。这项工作的成果将有助于建造实地仪器，将学生从两周的实验室工作(一次测量)转移到对科学感兴趣的目标的实时实地测量，因此是该领域的一项重要发展。RFMS的研究为一种进行质谱分析的新方法提供了原则证明，如果成功，这种方法将减少耐冲击化学测量的规模和成本，并使原本可能负担不起此类技术的机构和学生能够在现场使用。

The team of researchers at the Southwest Research Institute is developing two new mass spectrometer systems: 1) a portable, real-time laser ablation resonance ionization mass spectrometer (LARIMS) in order to enable in-situ isotopic measurements, and 2) a rotating field mass spectrometer (RFMS) for residual gas measurements in high shock environments. For LARIMS, not only are they expanding the basic physical understanding of the underlying atomic processes, but are in addition exploring methods that could enable real-time in-situ isotopic measurements of trace isotopic and elemental systems. By using LARIMS instead of TIMS or SIMS, initial results show that the laser and mass spectrometer systems could be made portable for real-time field use, while maintaining sufficient precision and accuracy for enabling geochronology, geolocation, forensics, archeology, food tracking, and studying nuclear processes. The outcome of this work will enable the construction of field instruments that would move students from 2- week laboratory stints (for one measurement), to real-time field measurements of the target of scientific interest, and is therefore an important development in the field. The RFMS study serves as a proof-of-principle for a new approach for doing mass spectrometry, which if successful, will reduce the size and cost of shock tolerant chemical measurements, also enabling field use by institutions and students that might not otherwise be able to afford such technology.