A Sensor Employing an Array of Silicon Photomultipliers for Detection of keV Ions in Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Pixelated scintillation detectors have the potential to overcome several limitations of conventional microchannel-plate-based detectors employed in time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ToF-MS), such as extending detector lifetime, reducing vacuum requirements or increasing the ion throughput. We have developed a prototype comprising a fast organic scintillator (Exalite 404) coupled to an array of 16 silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), with readout electronics based on the FastIC application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Each SiPM signal processed by FastIC is fed into its own time-to-digital converter (TDC). The dead time of a single channel can be as low as ∼ 25 ns. As a result, our system have the potential to process ion rates above 109 cm−2 s−1. We have evaluated the performance of our prototype using a velocity-map imaging ToF-MS instrument, recording the time-of-flight mass spectra of C3H6 and CF3I samples. We achieved time resolutions of (3.3 ± 0.1) and (2.5 ± 0.2) ns FWHM for ions of mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) 196 and 18, respectively. This corresponds to a mass resolution of ∼ 1000 for m/z < 200, which we found to be dominated by the spread in ion arrival times.

Source: Sensors

DOI: 10.3390/s25051585

Authors: Antonio Mariscal-Castilla, Markus Piller, Jerome Alozy, Rafael Ballabriga, Michael Campbell, Oscar de la Torre, David Gascon, Sergio Gómez, David Heathcote, Joan Mauricio, Dennis Milesevic, Andreu Sanuy, Claire Vallance, Daniel Guberman

Institutions: Institut de Ciències del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona, European Organization for Nuclear Research, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, University of Oxford

Language: English

Topic: Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies

Subfield: Radiation

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,137

Funders: University of Oxford, European Commission, Generalitat de Catalunya, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, European Regional Development Fund, Agencia Estatal de Investigación

OpenAlex ID: W4408218151