A spontaneous desorption source for polyatomic ion production

A novel molecular ion source based on spontaneous desorption (SD) processes has been developed. The molecular ions from the SD source are used as incident particles for the production of secondary cluster and molecular ions. The SD source presents attractive features for surface analysis and cluster ion beam production. It is shown that analytical applications can be performed with this source with better efficiency, in term of analysis time, than with fission fragment impacts used in plasma desorption mass spectrometry. Low intensity beams of clusters ions could be produced with good stability for a period of several weeks. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.