Superconducting Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry Systems for Biomolecules using Superconducting Digital Circuits

Abstract

We have been developing superconducting time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) systems that utilize a superconducting strip particle detector (SSPD) and a single-flux-quantum (SFQ) time-to-digital converter (TDC). The SSPD has high time resolution and constant detection efficiency even for high-mass molecules. The SFQ TDC can measure the time intervals between multiple input signals with extremely high time resolution and directly convert them into binary data. In this paper, we review recent developments on the superconducting TOF-MS systems in our group.