Time of flight

About: Time of flight is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3436 publications have been published within this topic receiving 51934 citations.

Estimation of optical pathlength through tissue from direct time of flight measurement

Abstract: Quantitation of near infrared spectroscopic data in a scattering medium such as tissue requires knowledge of the optical pathlength in the medium. This can now be estimated directly from the time of flight of picosecond length light pulses. Monte Carlo modelling of light pulses in tissue has shown that the mean value of the time dispersed light pulse correlates with the pathlength used in quantitative spectroscopic calculations. This result has been verified in a phantom material. Time of flight measurements of pathlength across the rat head give a pathlength of 5.3+or-0.3 times the head diameter.

Field-Deployable, High-Resolution, Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer

Abstract: The development of a new high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) is reported. The high-resolution capabilities of this instrument allow the direct separation of most ions from inorganic and organic species at the same nominal m/z, the quantification of several types of organic fragments (CxHy, CxHyOz, CxHyNp, CxHyOzNp), and the direct identification of organic nitrogen and organosulfur content. This real-time instrument is field-deployable, and its high time resolution (0.5 Hz has been demonstrated) makes it well-suited for studies in which time resolution is critical, such as aircraft studies. The instrument has two ion optical modes: a single-reflection configuration offers higher sensitivity and lower resolving power (up to ∼2100 at m/z 200), and a two-reflectron configuration yields higher resolving power (up to ∼4300 at m/z 200) with lower sensitivity. The instrument also allows the determination of the size distributions of all ions. One-minute detection limits for subm...

A New Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (TOF-AMS)—Instrument Description and First Field Deployment

Abstract: We report the development and first field deployment of a new version of the Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS), which is capable of measuring non-refractory aerosol mass concentrations, chemically speciated mass distributions and single particle information. The instrument was constructed by interfacing the well-characterized Aerodyne AMS vacuum system, particle focusing, sizing, and evaporation/ionization components, with a compact TOFWERK orthogonal acceleration reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer. In this time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (TOF-AMS) aerosol particles are focused by an aerodynamic lens assembly as a narrow beam into the vacuum chamber. Non-refractory particle components flash-vaporize after impaction onto the vaporizer and are ionized by electron impact. The ions are continuously guided into the source region of the time-of-flight mass spectrometer, where ions are extracted into the TOF section at a repetition rate of 83.3 kHz. Each extraction generates a complete mass spect...

A C60 Primary Ion Beam System for Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry: Its Development and Secondary Ion Yield Characteristics

Abstract: A buckminsterfullerene (C60)-based primary ion beam system has been developed for routine application in TOF-SIMS analysis of organic materials. The ion beam system is described, and its performance is characterized. Nanoamp beam currents of C60+ are obtainable in continuous current mode. C602+ can be obtained in pulsed mode. At 10 keV, the beam can be focused to less than 3 μm with 0.1 nA currents. TOF-SIMS studies of a series of molecular solids and a number of polymer systems in monolayer and thick film forms are reported. Very significant enhancement of secondary ion yields, particularly at higher mass, were observed using 10-keV C60+ for all samples other than PTFE, as compared to those observed from 10 keV Ga+ primary ions. Three materials (PS2000, Irganox 1010, PET) were studied in detail to investigate primary ion-induced disappearance (damage) cross sections to determine the increase in secondary ion formation efficiency. The C60 disappearance cross sections observed from monolayer film PS2000 an...

Chemical Analysis of Inorganic and Organic Surfaces and Thin Films by Static Time‐of‐Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF‐SIMS)

Abstract: By using mass spectrometry to analyze the atomic and molecular secondary ions that are emitted from a solid surface when bombarded with ions, one obtains detailed information about the chemical composition of the surface. A time-of-flight mass spectrometer is especially suitable for the analysis of secondary ions because of its high transmission, high mass resolution, and ability to detect ions of different masses simultaneously. By using a finely focused primary ion beam it is also possible to analyze microareas and generate surface images with a lateral resolution of 0.1 μm or less. Static time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) allows monolayer imaging and local analysis of monolayers with high sensitivity, a wide mass range, high mass resolution, and high lateral resolution. Besides information on elements and isotopes, the technique yields direct information on the molecular level and can also be used to analyze surface species of high molecular mass that are thermally unstable and cannot be vaporized. The method can be applied to practically all types of materials and sample forms, including insulators in particular. In this article the basic principles of TOF-SIMS are explained, and its analytical capabilities for both large area and imaging applications are illustrated by examples. These include silicon surfaces (both uniform and structured), thermally unstable organic molecules on surfaces, synthetic polymers, and synthetically prepared molecular surface films, particles, and fibers. Emitted neutral particles can also be analyzed by postionization with a laser, and the possibilities of this technique are discussed.