タンデム型加速器による超高感度質量分析法

抄録

During the last four years the tandem accelerator at the University of Rochester has been used as an ultrasensitive mass spectrometer in a “TIR” collaboration by the University of Toronto, General Ionex, and the University of Rochester. This extremely powerful new technique is briefly introduced. The TIR system has the advantage of extending the technique to the field of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) by incorporating a rather low voltage (2 MeV) tandem accelerator. The molecular ions whose interferences are difficult to eliminate with conventional ion microprobe mass analyzers can be fragmented and analyzed separately in surface and bulk solids. Sensitivity of TIR-mass spectrometry has been increased to detect parts per quadrillion (10¹⁵) in a sample; for the two isotopes ¹⁴C and ³⁶Cl sensitivities are better than 1 ppq. The stable isotopes of platinum and iridium, which can already be detected to ppb (10^-9) in terrestrial samples, are also being studied (Litherland and Rucklidge, 1980). An improved apparatus, called the “Tandetron”, is being built for the University of Toronto exclusively for ultrasensitive mass spectrometric studies in the whole field of scientific research.