Patent ID: 7138626
Filing Date: 2006-11-21
Classification: G01N,H01J

Abstract:
1. A method for the non-contact detection and analysis of analyte materials that are located in an unconfined space, comprising: passing a first gas through an electrical discharge to produce a stream of charged and energetic gas species; mixing said first gas, now containing charged and energetic gas species, with a second gas, said second gas having at least one component with an ionization potential less than that of said charged and energetic gas species to thereby produce reactant ions of said second gas; focusing ions contained in the mixed gas stream to form a beam within said gas stream and directing said gas stream and focused ion beam into said unconfined space and onto analyte materials in said unconfined space, at least some of said analyte materials having ionization potentials less than those of said reactant ions, to thereby ionize analyte molecules and to form analyte ions by transferring energy from reactant ions in the ion beam to analyte molecules; and collecting at least a portion of the gas containing analyte ions from said unconfined space, and passing that collected portion into a sensor to thereby detect and identify the analyte material.