Laser-induced acoustic desorption of electrons and ions

Abstract

Laser irradiation of absorbing materials can be used to generate acoustic pulses with extremely high amplitude and short pulse duration. Such acoustic pulses can transfer energy and momentum to atomic particles on solid surfaces to cause desorption of the particles. We report experimental observations of the effect of laser-induced acoustic desorption (LIAD) of electrons from metal film surfaces and hydrogen ions from the surface of palladium saturated with hydrogen. We believe LIAD can be used as a gentle technique to transfer analyte molecules and ions into gas phase for mass analysis and for other applications.

Laser-Induced Acoustic Desorption Atmospheric Pressure Photoionization via VUV-Generating Microplasmas

“…Laser-induced acoustic desorption (LIAD) is capable of desorbing analytes in a wide range of molecular weights and has therefore received significant recent attention [7][8][9][10]. LIAD is accomplished by irradiating the backside of a metal foil~5-20 μm thick with a nanosecond laser pulse of power density~10 8 W/cm 2 .…”

Molecular Desorption by Laser–Driven Acoustic Waves: Analytical Applications and Physical Mechanisms

“…The first observation of this method of molecular desorption (later called Laser Induced Acoustic Desorption, LIAD) belongs (to the best of our knowledge) to B. Lindner (Lindner and Seydel 1985). This observation has been followed by several studies including (Golovlev, Allman et al 1997) where the abbreviation LIAD was introduced and by (Perez, Ramirez-Arizmendi et al 2000) who applied the technique to several classes of MS problems. LIAD has rather simple experimental layout: an analyte is deposited onto the front surface of thin metal foil (the substrate), which is irradiated from the back (i.e.…”

“…The advantages of LIAD have been demonstrated by many researchers; however, the mechanism is not well understood. The first desorption mechanism was proposed (Golovlev, Allman et al 1997). It was supposed that because the metal is opaque and completely blocks the direct interaction between the drive laser light and adsorbed, frontside molecules, the only possible way of energy transfer is the mechanical.…”

Analysis of Saccharides by the Addition of Amino Acids

“…With an increase in the biological importance of oligo-or polysaccharides associated with cell-cell recognition, protein targeting, and metabolic diseases, polysaccharide and glycol-conjugate research has been attracting more attention [4,5]. Although different ionization methods [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] have been developed for the analysis of saccharides, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) [8] and ESI [11,[14][15][16][17][18] are the most used ionization methods. MALDI time-of-flight (TOF) MS has been used for the analysis of saccharides, and the sensitivity has been improved to the low femtomole level by reductive amination of the samples [19][20][21][22][23].…”