PURPOSE: To have easy and stable analysis of components of a metal specimen by supplying it turned in liquid state to a needle with shapened apex, and impressing a high voltage on it.
CONSTITUTION: In a vacuum vessel 40 kept with ultra-high vacuum by an evacuating device 17, a metal specimen 3 put in a reserver 2 is melted by resistance heating due to a current fed to a heater from a power supply 9. The specimen liquefied thereby 3 reaches the tip of a needle 1 to form a cone owing to the balance of the surface tension with the force of electric field. A voltage obtained by superposing high voltage pulses over a DC high voltage is impressed on the needle 1 from a high voltage pulse power supply 8, and mono-atomic pulse ions 30 are emitted from the tip of this cone. The emitted ions are accelerated by the electric field between a drawout electrode 6 and the needle 1, passed through a drift tube 7, and sensed 10. Thus the tip of the specimen 3 can be kept sharp at all times to ensure stable analysis, and there is no need to process the specimen into needle shape which permits saving the time and cost for processing.
UETAKE NAOTO
ASANO TAKASHI
Next Patent: DEVICE FOR SENSING FOREIGN MATTER IN LIQUID