Gustavus Adolphus College Society of Physics Students: Summer Research Talks

Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, Minnesota

April 25, 2012 @ 7:30pm in Olin Hall Room 220

Development of a Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer Using Radial Extraction from a Linear Quadrupole Ion Trap

Brandon J. Furey¹, Jessie Petricka¹

¹Gustavus Adolphus College

The research goals for the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Lab Group for 2011-2012 were twofold; to produce and trap molecular ions using laser ablation to load a linear quadrupole ion trap (LQT), and to develop a time-of-flight mass spectrometer to identify the trapped ions. Such cold molecule samples have applications in mass spectrometry, measurement of physical constants, and quantum state manipulation. Dan McDougal designed and built the LQT. This year, consideration of the necessary conditions to trap ions in stable trajectories resulted in successfully trapped ions. In addition, a time-of-flight mass spectrometer was designed and the preliminary stages were built.

Link to host department: https://gustavus.edu/physics/

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