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US 4,365,157 AGranted
Fluid analyzer utilizing a laser beam
AssigneeGesellschaft fur Strahlen- und Umweltforschung mbH
InventorsEberhard Unsold, Gerhard Renner, Reiner Wechsung
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for studying a fluid by forming a stream of the fluid, exciting the stream by causing a laser beam to impinge thereon to produce secondary particles or quanta, and subjecting the resulting secondary particles or quanta to an analysis operation in an analyzer.
Claims8
A method for studying a fluid comprising:
- forming a stream of such fluid in a vacuum chamber;
- exciting the stream by causing a pulsed laser beam to impinge thereon to produce photoionized ions of molecules of the fluid;
- and subjecting the resulting photoionized ions to a mass analysis operation in a time of flight mass spectrometer including a time of flight tube constituting the input portion of the spectrometer and enclosing an electric field free region, the tube being disposed in the vacuum chamber, said step of subjecting being carried out by causing the ions to pass through the field free region of the tube.
Apparatus for studying a fluid comprising:
- a vacuum chamber;
- means for generating a pulsed laser beam and converging the beam to a point within said chamber;
- means for directing an unconfined stream of the fluid along a path traversing the beam convergence point;
- and means for analyzing the photoionized ions of molecules of the fluid produced by impingement of the beam on the fluid, said analyzing means including a time of flight mass spectrometer provided with a time of flight tube constituting the input portion of the spectrometer and enclosing an electric field free region, said tube being located in proximity to the beam convergence point for permitting the ions to enter said tube and pass through said field free region.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.