Paper / PDF
TL;DR
In this paper we present:
- installation of beta-barium borate crystals into beam delivery line (we’ve build a new ultrafast optics line to achieve that), with doubling and tripling capabilities that allowed us to reach stable (power jitter below 1% shot-to-shot) and powerful (multifold above ionization threshold) far-UV fs-emission
- We use a clear Precambrian chert (mainly SiO2/glass with inclusions of absorptive kerogenous matter) as a testbed for new laser frequencies
- Change from IR-775 nm to UV-258 nm allowed us to increase the 1) mass-resolution of measured mass spectra by a factor 10, and 2) increase the total ion-yield by a factor of 10 and significantly decrease the dispersion, thus, allowing to collect mass spectrometric signals agnostic of any heterogeneity of analyte material
- we also present a very fast HV-module, that removes abundant ions of choice on the way to the detector, that allowed to increase the detection range by a factor of 5-7
- this is all achieved with coffee-cup sized mass spectrometer developed for in-situ space measurements on the Moon, Mars, Europe etc.