High resolution ion trap time-of-flight mass spectrometer for cold trapped ion experiments

Abstract

Trapping molecular ions that have been sympathetically cooled with laser-cooled atomic ions is a useful platform for exploring cold ion chemistry. We designed and characterized a new experimental apparatus for probing chemical reaction dynamics between molecular cations and neutral radicals at temperatures below 1 K. The ions are trapped in a linear quadrupole radio-frequency trap and sympathetically cooled by co-trapped, laser-cooled, atomic ions. The ion trap is coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer to readily identify product ion species, as well as to accurately determine trapped ion numbers. We discuss, and present in detail, the design of this ion trap time-of-flight mass spectrometer, as well as the electronics required for driving the trap and mass spectrometer. Furthermore, we measure the performance of this system, which yields mass resolutions of $m/\Delta m\ge 1100$ over a wide mass range, and discuss its relevance for future measurements in chemical reaction kinetics and dynamics.

arXiv comment9 pages, 9 figures

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• Laser-cooling-assisted mass spectrometry
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• Isotope-specific reactions of acetonitrile (CH3CN) with trapped, translationally cold CCl+
• Chiral molecule candidates for trapped ion spectroscopy by ab initio calculations: from state preparation to parity violation
• Quantum-State-Specific Reaction Rate Measurements for the Photo-induced Reaction Ca${}^{+}$ + O${}_2$ $\to$ CaO${}^{+}$ + O
• A hybrid ion-atom trap with integrated high resolution mass spectrometer
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• Quantum-chemistry-aided identification, synthesis and experimental validation of model systems for conformationally controlled reaction studies: Separation of the conformers of 2,3-dibromobuta-1,3-diene in the gas phase
• Number-Resolved Detection of Dark Ions in Coulomb Crystals
• Conformer-specific polar cycloaddition of dibromobutadiene with trapped propene ions
• Ion counting and temperature determination of Coulomb-crystallized laser-cooled ions in traps using convolutional neural networks
• A versatile apparatus for simultaneous trapping of multiple species of ultracold atoms and ions to enable studies of low energy collisions and cold chemistry