IonCCD™ for direct position-sensitive charged-particle detection: from electrons and keV ions to hyperthermal biomolecular ions.

A novel, low-cost, pixel-based detector array (described elsewhere Sinha and Wadsworth (76(2), 1) is examined using different charged particles, from electrons to hyperthermal (<100 eV) large biomolecular positive and negative ions, including keV small atomic and molecular ions. With this in mind, it is used in instrumentation design (beam profiling), mass spectrometry, and electron spectroscopy. The array detector is a modified light-sensitive charge-coupled device (CCD) that was engineered for direct charged-particle detection by replacing the semiconductor part of the CCD pixel with a conductor Sinha and Wadsworth (76(2), 1). The device is referred to as the IonCCD. For the first time, we show the direct detection of 250-eV electrons, providing linearity response of the IonCCD to the electron beam current. We demonstrate that the IonCCD detection efficiency is virtually independent from the particle energy (250 eV, 1250 eV), impact angle (45(o), 90(o)) and flux. By combining the IonCCD with a double-focusing sector field mass spectrometer (MS) of Mattauch-Herzog geometry (MH-MS), we demonstrate fast data acquisition. Detection of hyperthermal biomolecular ions produced using an electrospray ionization source (ESI) is also presented. In addition, the IonCCD was used as a beam profiler to characterize the beam shape and intensity of 15 eV protonated and deprotonated biomolecular ions at the exit of an rf-only collisional quadrupole. This demonstrates an ion-beam profiling application for instrument design. Finally, we present simultaneous detection of 140 eV doubly protonated biomolecular ions when the IonCCD is combined with the MH-MS. This demonstrates the possibility of simultaneous separation and micro-array deposition of biological material using a miniature MH-MS.