Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation system comprising a solid state laser

摘要

The invention relates to a mass spectrometer comprising a laser system for mass-spectrometric analyses with ionization of analyte molecules in a sample by matrix-assisted laser desorption; the spectrometer comprises a pulsed UV solid state laser system with a minimum energy consumption, produces a spatially distributed spot pattern with peaks of uniform energy density on the sample, increasing thereby the degree of ionization for analyte ions as compared to conventional spot patterns; the spot pattern with peaks of uniform energy density can be produced by means of homogeneous illumination of a pattern generator for example a lens array. According to the invention, the homogeneous illumination can be generated by a low-cost beam-shaping element 2, which does not act on the UV beam but on the original infrared beam, in conjunction with changes to the beam cross-section and beam profile brought about by the nonlinear conversion crystals 4,5; this beam shaping not only produces a beam profile which illuminates the pattern generator 8 homogeneously with low losses, but at the same time increases the efficiency of the frequency multiplication and the lifetime of the conversion crystals 4,5 so that significant cost savings are achieved because less laser energy is required and the lifetime is increased.