Mass spectrographs and ion collector systems therefor
AssigneeAssociated Electrical Industires Limited
InventorRichard Albert Bingham
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To provide electrical outputs from very closely spaced ion collectors in a mass spectrograph, use is made of appropriately positioned wires or tapes which emit secondary electrons when struck by ions. The secondary electrons in turn strike respective scintillators to generate light. Lightguides, such as glass fibres, conduct the light from the scintillators to respective photomultipliers, which can therefore be spaced as necessary, the bulk of the photomultipliers being much greater than the spacing of the ion collector wires. The wires or tapes can be in a single row in the focal plane, or in rows staggered about the focal plane.
Claims6
An ion collector system for a mass spectrograph in which ions of different mass-to-charge ratios in an ion beam passing through the spectrograph are focused at different points in a focal plane, comprising a plurality of ion sensitive means that are elongated in a direction generally transverse to said ion beam and are disposed generally parallel to one another in or adjacent to said focal plane, each in the path of ions of substantially only a single mass-to-charge ratio at any given time, said ion sensitive means being responsive to the interception of ions to emit secondary electrons, a plurality of scintillators each disposed adjacent a respective one of the ion sensitive means and substantially alongside the path of said ions, means to bias said scintillators to attract said secondary electrons each substantially only from a respective one of said ion sensitive means, a plurality of light to electricity converters, and a plurality of light-guide means associated one with each scintillator to guide light substantially only from the respective scintillator to a respective one of said light to electricity converters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.