Patent ID: 7759640

Claim:
A mass spectrometer for ionizing a component contained in a sample by irradiating the sample with laser light, for separating ions according to their mass-to-charge ratio, and for detecting the separated ions, comprising: a) a sample observation system, including an observation optical system, for allowing an operator to observe a predetermined range of the sample with the naked eye or on a captured image and select a target portion to be analyzed; b) a laser-delivering system, including a laser-condensing optical system, for condensing and delivering an ionizing laser light onto a predetermined point outside the aforementioned predetermined range observable through the sample observation system; and c) a sample conveyer for holding the sample and moving it so that the target portion of the sample selected by the operator through the sample observation system comes to the predetermined point onto which the laser light is delivered from the laser-delivering system; the sample conveyer including a stage on which the sample is to be placed; a stage driver for moving the stage within a predetermined range; and a controller for calculating a control input for moving the target portion to the predetermined point onto which the laser light is delivered, when a position on the sample is selected as the target portion during the observation through the sample observation system, and for operating the stage driver according to the control input thereby calculated.