Understanding molecular negative ion production for use in pathology

该项目旨在通过提高我们对等离子体源离子束形成的理解来提高分子负离子源的产量，并扩大我们对等离子体环境中分子负离子产生的认识，从而产生更亮的离子束。例如，了解癌症需要细胞水平的工具来绘制细胞如何变化。这些地图是用离子束绘制的，离子束扫描细胞，去除在原子和分子水平上分析的物质。离子束是由等离子体源产生的，但它们的大部分运作方式尚不清楚。这种改进的离子束有望使廉价和快速的细胞水平病理，甚至在小医院解决癌症，造福社会。

The project aims to increase the yield of molecular negative ion sources by improving our understanding of the formation of ion beams from plasma sources and expand our knowledge of molecular negative ion generation in plasma environments leading to brighter ion beams. For example, understanding cancer requires cellular level tools to map how cells are changing. These maps are made using ion beams which are scanned across cells to remove material that is analysed at the atomic and molecular level. Ion beams are produced from plasma sources, but much of their operation is not understood. Such improved ion beams are expected to enable inexpensive and fast cellular level pathology at even small hospitals to tackle cancer for society’s benefit.