Effusive molecular beam from a capillary array for improved resolution time-of-flight and collision spectrometry

Abstract

We report here high mass resolution obtained with an electron impact, Wiley-McLaren type time-of-flight spectrometer employing an effusive molecular beam from a capillary array instead of the conventional gas cell. The improvement in resolution is due to the subthermal transverse velocity spread achievable from the well-directed target beam produced by the capillary array. We also discuss the advantage of using the capillary array in various other spectrometry applications such as translational energy spectrometry and electron spectrometry where the energy resolution is limited by the thermal motion of the target gas.