Insertion of an electron beam ionizer in a quadrupole spectrometer for secondary neutral mass analysis

Abstract

An insertable electron beam ionizer into a quadrupole-based secondary ion mass spectrometer instrument has been designed and installed to analyze sputtered neutrals. The optimum design conditions of the ionizer have been obtained by modeling various configurations of the system using a simulation program developed by us. The program has allowed us to compute the potentials and ion trajectories inside the system to test the performance of the ion optics design. We have investigated the advantages of using a large ionization volume with low electron current to minimize the space charge effect in the ionizer, as this is the major problem in this type of instrument. In addition, we have used the simulations to obtain all electrodes voltages which provide an efficient suppression of residual gas and secondary ions. A good useful yield was obtained, even with low electron densities, thanks to the high geometrical acceptance of the ionizer and its large active volume. This configuration implies less thermal radiation in the ionizer and, in addition, a longer life time of the filament. Although the signal of residual gas not suppressed ( i.e. in residual gas mode) is two orders of magnitude higher than the signal of sputtered neutrals, we have achieved a good background suppression.