On the correlation between emitter heating current and emitter temperature in field desorption mass spectrometry

Calibration curves have been established that give an estimate of the temperature in the emission region of high temperature activated field desorption emitters. Two characteristic types of field anodes have been investigated: (1) emitter wires carrying microneedles of 25 to 30 μm length, preferentially used for field desorption of organic compounds; (2) emitters with microneedles of 50 to 60 μm length, which are used for the investigations of polymers by pyrolysis field desorption mass spectrometry.