Air Force Research Laboratory ยท Kirtland Air Force Base
Multiple ion sources, one reaction platform
Different chemical questions call for different routes to producing ions. The 2015 source-region upgrade brought additional ionization options into a shared selected-ion flow-tube architecture.
The challenge
The research team needed access to a broader range of ions without building a separate reaction instrument for each ionization method.
The engineering
The published work describes coupling electrospray and solids-probe/chemical-ionization sources to the selected-ion flow-tube apparatus. Ardara collaborated on the redesigned source region, which integrated source options with the existing ion-transfer path.
The research value
The combined architecture allowed the same downstream experimental platform to work with ions produced by complementary source methods. It is one part of a longer program of instrumentation upgrades, rather than a claim that Ardara designed every element of the complete apparatus.
Source
Coupling an electrospray source and a solids probe/chemical ionization source to a selected ion flow tube apparatus, Review of Scientific Instruments 86, 084101 (2015).