Trace Element Analysis of Potassium by Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometry

TL;DR

This paper presents a resonance ionization mass spectrometry method for trace potassium analysis, demonstrating isotope discrimination and efficiency estimation using a simple setup with laser diodes and a quadrupole mass spectrometer.

Contribution

It introduces a straightforward resonance ionization technique for potassium isotope detection with effective discrimination and efficiency evaluation.

Findings

Successful discrimination of potassium isotopes $^{39} m K$, $^{40} m K$, and $^{41} m K$

Estimated detection efficiency comparing resonance and electron-impact ionization

Built a simple resonance ionization mass spectrometer with laser diodes and QMS

Abstract

A simple resonance ionization mass spectrometer is built with a Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS) and two laser diodes aiming at trace analysis of potassium. The overall detection efficiency is estimated comparing the yields of resonance ionization and electron-impact ionization in the same QMS. A clear discrimination of $^{39}\rm K$, $^{40}\rm K$ and $^{41}\rm K$ is demonstrated with a help of isotope shifts of the atomic levels.