Variable angle reflectron time-of-flight mass analyzer (VARTMAN) for studying synchrotron radiation photochemistry of polyatomic molecules

Abstract

Abstract A new experimental apparatus, variable angle reflectron time-of-flight mass analyzer (VARTMAN), for studying synchrotron radiation photochemistry of the inner core excited organic molecules has been designed and constructed. A new type of reflectron time-of-flight (RTOF) mass analyzer, having a mesh-less reflector and tandem ion lens system, was designed to obtain moderate mass-resolution, even for fragment ions with kinetic energies of several eV while preserving kinetic energy information of the ions. In order to observe the angular distribution of fragment ions, the detection angle of the RTOF axis is variable with respect to the linear polarization axis of the synchrotron radiation. The new type of TOF can be operated in; (1) all solid angle (4π) collection mode for ions with kinetic energy up to 10 eV, (2) energy and angle resolve mode with a limited solid angle and (3) linear TOF mode. The mass resolution of the RTOF was measured to be 80 for fragment ions with kinetic energy up to 5 eV.