TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS REFLECTRON WITH A LARGE-AREA OF ION COLLECTION

This paper is devoted to the construction of a time-of-flight mass reflectron with the following features: (1) a time resolution of several hundreds for various ion sources (providing elemental analysis with surface ionization, Cf-252 or dust impact ion sources); (2) a huge area of the ion formation region (200 cm2) with the possibility of extending further without decreasing analytical characteristics or lengthening the reflectron); (3) an extremely simplified compact design with very high transparency of the ion mirror grid (> 98%) and decreased demands for accuracy of manufacturing and voltage supply. An experimentally observed satisfactory agreement between the theoretical (both analytical and numerical) model of the reflectron and its practical realization, which is made possible by taking into account large-scale field perturbations, caused by grids on the ion mirror and the secondary electron multiplier, as well as by near-emitter chromatic aberration.