Laser strike

The central idea in the laser-based method for detection of small quantities of H in restricted areas is that an intense laser strike can form a pothole in a metal. The metal of the pothole and the H it contains are vaporized. Both the H and some of the metallic atoms are withdrawn by a vacuum that pulls gaseous constituents out of the system. On the way, however, these constituents are made to fly through the space between the electrodes of a quadrupole mass spectrometer set to measure mass 2. Knowing the H2 produced from one laser strike, and the dimensions of the pothole, the H concentration in the metal—and within any restricted area to which the laser can be directed—can be measured. 

Scanning technique used is that of triangulation which is based on using a 3D non-contact active scanner. Non-contact active scanners emit some kind of radiation or light and exploit a camera to look for the location of the laser dot. Depending on how far away the laser strikes a surface, the laser dot appears at different places in the camera s field of view. This technique is called triangulation because the laser dot, the camera and the laser emitter form a triangle, fig. 2. 

A laser pulse strikes the surface of a sample (a), depositing energy, which leads to melting and vaporization of neutral molecules and ions from a small, confined area (b). A few nanoseconds after the pulse, the vaporized material is either pumped away or, if it is ionic, it is drawn into the analyzer of a mass spectrometer (c). 

A laser pulse strikes the surface of a specimen (a), removing material from the first layer, A. The mass spectrometer records the formation of A+ ions (b). As the laser pulses ablate more material, eventually layer B is reached, at which stage A ions begin to decrease in abundance and ions appear instead. The process is repeated when the B/C boundary is reached so that B+ ions disappear from the spectrum and C+ ions appear instead. This method is useful for depth profiling through a specimen, very little of which is needed. In (c), less power is used and the laser beam is directed at different spots across a specimen. Where there is no surface contamination, only B ions appear, but, where there is surface impurity, ions A from the impurity also appear in the spectrum (d). 

Aerosols can be produced as a spray of droplets by various means. A good example of a nebulizer is the common household hair spray, which produces fine droplets of a solution of hair lacquer by using a gas to blow the lacquer solution through a fine nozzle so that it emerges as a spray of small droplets. In use, the droplets strike the hair and settle, and the solvent evaporates to leave behind the nonvolatile lacquer. For mass spectrometry, a spray of a solution of analyte can be produced similarly or by a wide variety of other methods, many of which are discussed here. Chapters 8 ( Electrospray Ionization ) and 11 ( Thermospray and Plasmaspray Interfaces ) also contain details of droplet evaporation and formation of ions that are relevant to the discussion in this chapter. Aerosols are also produced by laser ablation for more information on this topic, see Chapters 17 and 18. 

Safety Standards. Protection from laser beams involves not allowing laser radiation at a level higher than a maximum permissible exposure level to strike the human body. Maximum permissible exposure levels for both eyes and skin have been defined (55—57). One of the most common safety measures is the use of protective eyewear. Manufacturers of laser safety eyewear commonly specify the attenuation at various laser wavelengths. Under some conditions safety eyewear has been known to shatter or to be burned through (58), and it is not adequate to protect a wearer staring directly into the beam. 

The first is a pyrolytic approach in which the heat dehvered by the laser breaks chemical bonds in vapor-phase reactants above the surface, allowing deposition of the reaction products only in the small heated area. The second is a direct photolytic breakup of a vapor-phase reactant. This approach requires a laser with proper wavelength to initiate the photochemical reaction. Often ultraviolet excimer lasers have been used. One example is the breakup of trimethyl aluminum [75-24-1] gas using an ultraviolet laser to produce free aluminum [7429-90-5], which deposits on the surface. Again, the deposition is only on the localized area which the beam strikes. 

Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the laser-vaporization supersonic cluster source. Just before the peak of an intense He pulse from the nozzle (at left), a weakly focused laser pulse strikes from the rotating metal rod. The hot metal vapor sputtered from the surface is swept down the condensation channel in dense He, where cluster formation occurs through nucleation. The gas pulse expands into vacuum, with a skinned portion to serve as a collimated cluster bean. The deflection magnet is used to measure magnetic properties, while the final chaiber at right is for measurement of the cluster distribution by laser photoionization time-of-flight mass spectroscopy.

Figure 6 shows the sequence of events in a laser desorption FTMS experiment. First, a focused laser beam traverses the analyzer cell and strikes the crystal normal to the surface. Molecules desorbed by the thermal spike rapidly move away from the crystal and are ionized by an electron beam which passes through the cell parallel to the magnetic field and 3 cm in front of the crystal. 

Figure 6. The sequence of events in a laser desorption FTMS experiment, (a) The laser beam enters the cell and strikes the crystal, (b) Some of the desorbed molecules are ionized by an electron beam, (c) Ions are trapped in the analyzer cell by the magnetic and electric fields, (d) Ions are accelerated by an RF pulse and the resulting coherent image current signal is detected. Reproduced with permission from Ref. 18. Copyright 1935, North-Holland Physics Publishing.

In a typical experiment, linearly polarized pulsed laser fight of frequency co strikes the electrode snrface at an angle 9 from the snrface normal. The harmonic light of frequency 2co generated at or near the angle of specnlar reflection is analyzed... 

The dynamic process of bubble collapse has been observed by Lauter-born and others by ultrahigh speed photography (105 frames/second) of laser generated cavitation (41). As seen in Fig. 4, the comparison between theory and experiment is remarkably good. These results were obtained in silicone oil, whose high viscosity is responsible for the spherical rebound of the collapsed cavities. The agreement between theoretical predictions and the experimental observations of bubble radius as a function of time are particularly striking. 

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