Model multilayer structures for three-dimensional cell imaging

The prospects for SIMS three-dimensional analysis of biological materials were explored using model multilayer structures. The samples were analyzed in a ToF-SIMS spectrometer equipped with a 20 keV buckminsterfullerene (C₆₀⁺) ion source. Molecular depth information was acquired using a C₆₀⁺ ion beam to etch through the multilayer structures at specified time intervals. Subsequent to each individual erosion cycle, static SIMS spectra were recorded using a pulsed C₆₀⁺ ion probe. Molecular intensities in sequential mass spectra were monitored as a function of primary ion fluence. The resulting depth information was used to characterize C₆₀⁺ bombardment of biological materials. Specifically, molecular depth profile studies involving dehydrated dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) organic films indicate that cell membrane lipid materials do not experience significant chemical damage when bombarded with C₆₀⁺ ion fluences greater than 10¹⁵ ions/cm². Moreover, depth profile analyses of DPPC-sucrose frozen multilayer structures suggest that biomolecule information can be uncovered after the C₆₀⁺ sputter removal of a 20 nm overlayer with no appreciable loss of underlying molecular signal. The experimental results support the potential for three-dimensional molecular mapping of biological materials using cluster SIMS.     

纳秒激光诱导C60分子碎裂中轻碎片离子C+n(n＜30)的产生机理研究

采用飞行时间质谱计测量了纳秒激光诱导C₆₀分子碎裂中轻碎片离子C⁺_n(n≤11)的初始平均动能,结果显示轻碎片离子具有相同的初始平均动能(约为0.34eV),并且该动能在一定范围内不随激光通量的变化而明显改变.结合前人的实验结果,对纳秒激光诱导C₆₀分子碎裂中轻碎片离子C⁺_n(n＜30)的主要产生模式作了新的阐述,即C< 关键词： 飞行时间质谱计 轻碎片离子 笼形结构塌陷 初始动能     

Energy distributions of atomic and molecular ions sputtered by C60 projectiles

In the process of investigating the interaction of fullerene projectiles with adsorbed organic layers, we measured the kinetic energy distributions (KEDs) of fragment and parent ions sputtered from an overlayer of polystyrene (PS) oligomers cast on silver under 15 keV C₆₀⁺ bombardment. These measurements have been conducted using our TRIFT™ spectrometer, recently equipped with the C₆₀⁺ source developed by Ionoptika, Ltd. For atomic ions, the intensity corresponding to the high energy tail decreases in the following order: C⁺(E^−0.4) > H⁺(E^−1.5) > Ag⁺(E^−3.5). In particular, the distribution of Ag⁺ is not broader than those of Ag₂⁺ and Ag₃⁺ clusters, in sharp contrast with 15 keV Ga⁺ bombardment. On the other hand, molecular ions (fragments and parent-like species) exhibit a significantly wider distribution using C₆₀⁺ instead of Ga⁺ as primary ions. For instance, the KED of Ag-cationized PS oligomers resembles that of Ag⁺ and Ag_n⁺ clusters. A specific feature of fullerene projectiles is that they induce the direct desorption of positively charged oligomers, without the need of a cationizing metal atom. The energy spectrum of these PS⁺ ions is significantly narrower then that of Ag-cationized oligomers. For characteristic fragments of PS, such as C₇H₇⁺ and C₁₅H₁₃⁺ and polycyclic fragments, such as C₉H₇⁺ and C₁₄H₁₀⁺, the high energy decay is steep (E⁻⁴ − E⁻⁸). In addition, reorganized ions generally show more pronounced high energy tails than characteristic ions, similar to the case of monoatomic ion bombardment. This observation is consistent with the higher excitation energy needed for their formation. Finally, the fraction of hydrocarbon ions formed in the gas phase via unimolecular dissociation of larger species is slightly larger with gallium than with fullerene projectiles.     

Branching ratios of successive emission (up to three) of C2n + (n = 1–5) fragments in asymmetrical fission processes of C60 r+ ions (r = 4–6)

Highly charged C₆₀ molecules are produced in collisions between neutral C₆₀ and multiply charged ions within a large range of temperatures. Successive emission of one, two or three light monocharged fragments referred as one-, two- and three-step processes have been observed. The experimental mass branching ratios for the emission of one C_2n⁺ fragment from C₆₀⁶⁺, C₆₀⁵⁺ and C₆₀⁴⁺ ions are compared with the theoretical values using a statistical model. From hotter C₆₀⁶⁺ ions, branching ratios for three-step processes have been measured and the data are in good agreement with an estimation using the branching ratios in one-step process.     

Molecular ion emission from single large cluster impacts

We investigated the emission of the secondary ions stimulated by single impacts of 136 keV Au₄₀₀⁴⁺ projectiles. The study was carried out on targets of glycine, phenylalanine, and C₆₀. In addition, a target of C₆₀ was examined with 18 keV C₆₀⁺ projectiles. The experiments were performed in the event-by-event bombardment/detection mode. The secondary ions were identified with linear time-of-flight mass spectrometer equipped with an 8-anode detector. The Au₄₀₀⁴⁺ projectile induces abundant multi-ion emission, for instance the average number of detected ions (atomic, fragment, molecular and cluster ions) emitted per event from glycine target is 12.5. The glycine intact molecular ion (Gly⁻) yield is 1.14. The bombardment of a C₆₀ target results in the efficient emission of multiple intact C₆₀⁻ (total yield is 0.15).     

Analysis of TOF-SIMS spectra from fullerene compounds

We analyzed TOF-SIMS spectra obtained from three different size of fullerenes (C₆₀, C₇₀ and C₈₄) by using Ga⁺, Au⁺ and Au₃⁺ primary ion beams and investigated the fragmentation patterns, the enhancement of secondary ion yields and the restraint of fragmentation by using cluster primary ion beams compared with monoatomic primary ion beams. In the TOS-SIMS spectra from C₇₀ and C₈₄, it was found that a fragment ion, identified as C₆₀⁺ (m/z = 720), showed a relatively high intensity compared with that of other fragment ions related to C₂ depletion. It was also found that the Au₃⁺ bombardment caused intensity enhancement of intact molecules (C₆₀⁺, C₇₀⁺ and C₈₄⁺) and restrained the fragmentation due to C₂ depletion.     

Characterisation of human hair surfaces by means of static ToF-SIMS: A comparison between Ga and C60 primary ions

This study deals with the secondary ion yield improvement induced by using C₆₀⁺ primary ions instead of Ga⁺ ones to characterize human hair surfaces by ToF-SIMS. For that purpose, a bunch of hair fibres has been analysed with both ion sources. A high improvement is observed for the detection of amino acids with C₆₀⁺ primary ions as compared to Ga⁺ ions. As an example, a yield enhancement factor greater than 3000 is found for the CNO⁻ peak. A similar gain is observed for the positive secondary ions characteristic of the amino acids. Most of the atomic ions, such as Ca⁺, O⁻ and S⁻, constitute minor peaks with C₆₀⁺ ions while they often dominate the spectrum in the case of Ga⁺ ions. However, with the C₆₀⁺ source, a series of inorganic combination peaks with the elements Ca, S and O are observed in the positive spectra (i.e. HCaSO₄⁺), while they are marginal with the Ga⁺ source. For the mass range beyond 100 m/z and in both polarities, the hair fingerprints are similar with both sources. In average, for a comparable number of primary ions per spectrum, the C₆₀⁺ ion source gives intensities between two and three orders of magnitude higher than the Ga⁺ one.     

Depth profiling of taxol-loaded poly(styrene-b-isobutylene-b-styrene) using Ga and C60 ion beams

The surface of a triblock copolymer, containing a solid-phase drug, was investigated using 15 keV Ga⁺ and 20 keV C₆₀⁺ ion beams. Overall, the results illustrate the successful use of a cluster ion beam for greatly enhancing the molecular ion and high-mass fragment ion intensities from the surface and bulk of the polymer system. The use of C₆₀⁺ also established the ability to see through common overlayers like poly(dimethyl siloxane) which was not possible using atomic ion sources. Moreover, the use of C₆₀⁺ allowed depth profiles to be obtained using primary ion dose densities in excess of 6 × 10¹⁴ C₆₀⁺/cm². Resulting sputter craters possess relatively flat bottoms without the need for sample rotation and reached depths of ca. 2 μm. AFM results illustrate the more gentile removal of surface species using cluster ions. Specifically, phase contrast and topographic images suggest the relatively high ion doses do not significantly alter the phase distribution or surface topography of the polymer. However, a slight increase in rms roughness was noticed.     

Stretching the limits of static SIMS with C60

Pristine and Au-covered molecular films have been analyzed by ToF-SIMS (TRIFT™), using 15 keV Ga⁺ (FEI) and 15 keV C₆₀⁺ (Ionoptika) primary ion sources. The use of C₆₀⁺ leads to an enormous yield enhancement for gold clusters, especially when the amount of gold is low (2 nmol/cm²), i.e. a situation of relatively small nanoparticles well separated in space. It also allows us to extend significantly the traditional mass range of static SIMS. Under 15 keV C₆₀⁺ ion bombardment, a series of clusters up to a mass of about 20,000 Da (Au₁₀₀⁻: 19,700 Da) is detected. This large yield increase is attributed to the hydrocarbon matrix (low-atomic mass), because the yield increase observed for thick metallic films (Ag, Au) is much lower. The additional yield enhancement factors provided by the Au metallization procedure for organic ions (MetA-SIMS) have been measured under C₆₀⁺ bombardment. They reach a factor of 2 for the molecular ion and almost an order of magnitude for Irganox fragments such as C₄H₉⁺, C₁₅H₂₃O⁺ and C₁₆H₂₃O⁻.     

Trapping ions at high temperatures: thermal decay of C60 +

An ensemble of trapped C₆₀ ⁺ ions has been heated with a continuous CO₂ laser to a stationary state where, in time average, the same energy is emitted as absorbed. With 10 W laser power, equilibria have been reached, which correspond to temperatures between 1800 and 2000 K. The ions are confined in a radio frequency quadrupole field created by a set of ring electrodes (split ring electrode trap). The number of stored ions can be determined in two ways, on one side by extracting and counting them with a Daly detector, on the other side via imaging their thermal emission onto an intensified CCD camera. Single photon sensitivity and a spatial resolution of a few μm provide precise information on the geometrical distribution and the total number of the trapped C₆₀ ⁺ ions. The spectral distribution of the emitted photons or their total number provides information on the internal energy of the ions. Trapping times of many minutes make it possible to follow very slow thermal loss of C₂ from hot C₆₀ ⁺ resulting in fragmentation rates between 10^?1 and 10^?3 s^?1. Correlating them to the internal temperature leads to a curved Arrhenius plot. The resulting parameters are smaller than the values derived from nonequilibrium ensembles.     

Dissociative photoionization of l-menthone: An experimental and theoretical study

The dissociative photoionization mechanism of l-menthone has been investigated with photoionization mass spectrometry using synchrotron radiation. The adiabatic ionization energy (IE) of l-menthone and the appearance energies (AE) of its major fragment ions C₉H₁₅O⁺, C₉H₁₇⁺, C₈H₁₆⁺, C₇H₁₁O⁺, C₆H₁₀O⁺, C₆H₉O⁺, C₅H₈O⁺, C₅H₁₀⁺, C₄H₆O⁺, C₅H₉⁺, C₄H₈⁺, C₄H₇⁺, C₃H₇⁺, C₃H₆⁺, C₂H₂O⁺, and CH₃⁺ are determined with their photoionization efficiency (PIE) spectra in the photon energy region of ∼8−15.5 eV. Breakdown diagrams identifying the major products are presented. Dissociative photoionization channels for formation of these fragment ions are proposed based on comparison of determined experimental appearance energies and energies predicted with the DFT calculations. According to our results, the experimental dissociation energies are in fair agreement with the theoretical values of the possible photodissociation channels of C₁₀H₁₈O.     

The fragmentation of negative ions of fullerene C60 trifluoromethyl derivatives

The formation and decay of gas-phase negative ions of trifluoromethylated fullerenes C₆₀(CF₃) _n (n = 2–10) were studied. The resonance electron capture mass spectra were measured to find that the main fragmentation channel of negative ions was the detachment of trifluoromethyl groups. The degree of fragmentation directly depended on the energy of electrons and reached the complete splitting off of all the CF₃ addends with the formation of C₆₀⁻ ions. The observed metastable ion signals were analyzed to determine the scheme of sequential fragmentation of negative ions.     

Kinetic energy distributions of the fragment ions from multiply ionized C2H6 as functions of the charge state of the intermediate states

Here, we report the kinetic energy distributions (KEDs) of the fragment ions produced from multiply ionized ethane (C₂H₆) molecules in single electron capture collisions with 1.2 MeV C²⁺. To systematically investigate the fragmentation dynamics, the KEDs were obtained as functions of the charge state of the intermediate C₂H₆^r+* ions r transiently generated prior to fragmentation. r was determined from coincidence measurement of the fragment ions and the number of emitted electrons. The KEDs are drastically different depending on the number of broken C–H bonds. The underlying causes are explained by the variation of the relative contributions of the multiply ionized states and preferential fragmentation pathways. For instance, CH_n⁺ fragment ions with smaller n exhibit lower KEs because they are likely to be correlated with H⁺ emission, which carries away a large portion of the KE release. In addition, we report the KEDs of H₃⁺ produced from doubly and triply charged states.     

Production and decay of highly-charged fullerene ions

Highly-charged fullerene ions C ₆₀ ^z+ and C ₇₀ ^z+ with charge states up to z=7 have been produced in an electron impact ion source of a two sector field mass spectrometer by using ion source operating conditions similar to those used in EBIT sources. The stability of these ions was investigated quantitatively in the two field free regions of the mass spectrometer. It was found that besides C₂ evaporation the dominant fission process for ions with charges larger than +2 is the loss of a charged C ₂ ⁺ unit via a super-asymmetric charge separation reaction C ₆₀ ^z+ C ₅₈ ^(z–1)+ +C ₂ ⁺ and C ₇₀ ^z+ C ₆₈ ^(z–1)+ +C ₂ ⁺ , respectively. The most important finding from these studies is that this super-asymmetric dissociation reaction proceeds via a three stage reaction sequence involving an electron transfer reaction at the second stage between a receding C₂ unit and the remaining highly-charged fullerene cage.Based on a lecture given by S. Matt at the 1st Euroconference on Atomic Physics with Stored Highly Charged Ions, Heidelberg, 1995.     

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bulk film analysis using C60, Au3, and Au primary ion beams

The damage characteristics of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) have been studied under bombardment by C₆₀⁺, Au₃⁺ and Au⁺ primary ions. The observed damage cross-sections for the three ion beams are not dramatically different. The secondary ion yields however were significantly enhanced by the polyatomic primary ions where the secondary ion yield of the [M + H]⁺ is on average 5× higher for C₆₀⁺ than Au₃⁺ and 8× higher for Au₃⁺ than Au⁺. Damage accumulates under Au⁺ and Au₃⁺ bombardment while C₆₀⁺ bombardment shows a lack of damage accumulation throughout the depth profile of the PET thick film up to an ion dose of ∼1 × 10¹⁵ ions cm⁻². These properties of C₆₀⁺ bombardment suggest that the primary ion will be a useful molecular depth profiling tool.     

Equilibrium charge state distributions of beam foil excited molecular fragments exiting carbon foils

Summary Equilibrium charge state distributions of ions emerging from solids have been measured. As incident particles were used both atomic (C⁺, N⁺, O⁺) and molecular (N ₂ ⁺ , CO⁺) projectile ions (0.025<E/M<0.108 MeV/u). The data of atomic projectile ions agree well with the data of other authors in a range in which they overlap. Charge state fractions of emerging molecular-fragment ions behind a carbon foil are strongly influenced by the Coulomb explosion and possibly by the wake potential. Supported by BMFT/Bonn.     

三氯乙烯的真空紫外同步辐射光电离和光解离

利用真空紫外(VUV)同步辐射光源和反射式飞行时间质谱仪，在超声冷却条件下对三氯乙烯(C₂HCl₃)进行了光电离研究，通过测量各离子的光电离效率(PIE)曲线，得到了C₂HCl₃的电离势P_I(C₂HCl₃)=9.51±0.05eV，以及C₂HCl₃光解离碎片离子的出现势(P_A)：P_{关键词： 同步辐射光电离 电离势 出现势 三氯乙烯}     

Fragmentation of polyatomic ions produced by electron-loss collisions of butane and isobutane molecules with ions of kiloelectronvolt energy

Fragmentation accompanying the loss of electrons by butane and isobutane (C₄H₁₀) molecules in collisions with energy H⁺, He²⁺, and Ar⁶⁺ ions of kiloelectronvolt energies is studied. The electron density functional technique is applied to C _n H_2n+2 alkane molecules and their respective C _n H _2n+2 ⁺ ions to carry out quantum-chemical calculations of the atomic spacing, electron total energy for the initial configuration of the ionizing molecules and ions in the ground state, and atomic bond breaking energy necessary to produce different ion fragments. The fragmentation energy is correlated with the fragmentation probability. It is shown that the relative cross sections of ion fragmentation depend primarily on the related energy consumption. However, the process cross section is also strongly affected by the initial configuration of C₄H₁₀ isomer molecules, as well as by the amount of dangling and arising atomic bonds involved in the formation of each ion fragment.     

1,4-二氧六环的真空紫外同步辐射光解离电离研究

The photoionization and photodissociation of 1,4-dioxane have been investigated with a reflectron time-of-flight photoionization mass spectrometry and a tunable vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation in the energy region of 8.0-15.5 eV. Parent ion and fragment ions at m/z 88, 87, 58, 57, 45, 44, 43, 41, 31, 30, 29, 28 and 15 are detected under supersonic conditions. The ionization energy of DX as well as the appearance energies of its fragment ions C₄H₇O₂⁺, C₃H₆O⁺, C₃H₅O⁺, C₂H₅O⁺, C₂H₄O⁺, C₂H₃O⁺, C₃H₅⁺, CH₃O⁺, C₂H₆⁺, C₂H₅⁺/CHO⁺, C₂H₄⁺ and CH₃⁺ was determined from their photoionization efficiency curves. The optimized structures for the neutrals, cations, transition states and intermediates related to photodissociation of DX are characterized at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level and their energies are obtained by G3B3 method. Possible dissociative channels of the DX are proposed based on comparison of experimental AE values and theoretical predicted ones. Intramolecular hydrogen migrations are found to be the dominant processes in most of the fragmentation pathways of 1,4-dioxane.