Title :
A miniaturized non-radioactive electron emitter for atmospheric pressure chemical ionization
Author :
Cochems, P. ; Runge, M. ; Zimmermann, S.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Sensors & Meas. Technol., Leibniz Univ. Hannover, Hannover, Germany
Abstract :
In atmospheric pressure chemical ionization as usually used in ion mobility spectrometry radioactive beta minus sources provide free electrons with high kinetic energy to initiate a chemical gas phase ionization of the analytes. In this paper we present a simple to manufacture miniaturized non-radioactive electron source to provide the free electrons at atmospheric pressure. Therefore, we generate free electrons by classical thermo emission from a tungsten filament in vacuum. The emitted free electrons are then accelerated towards an electron transparent 300 nm thin Si3N4-membrane through which the electrons are transferred from vacuum to atmospheric pressure. The average kinetic electron energy at atmospheric pressure is 8.6 keV.
Keywords :
beta-ray sources; electron guns; electron sources; ion mobility spectrometers; ionisation; vacuum techniques; APCI; atmospheric pressure chemical ionization; chemical gas phase ionization; electron transfer; electron transparency; electron volt energy 8.6 keV; free electron generation; ion mobility spectrometry; kinetic energy; miniaturized nonradioactive electron emitter; radioactive beta minus source; size 300 nm; thermo emission; tungsten filament; vacuum; Acceleration; Chemicals; Electron sources; Ionization; Kinetic energy; Spectroscopy; APCI; Atmospheric pressure chemical ionization; IMS; e-gun; ion mobility spectrometry; non-radioactive electron gun;
Conference_Titel :
Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS & EUROSENSORS XXVII), 2013 Transducers & Eurosensors XXVII: The 17th International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Barcelona
DOI :
10.1109/Transducers.2013.6626971
