Seminars Archive

From "Star Wars" to Star Dust: the Free Electron Laser Story

Abstract
Samples returned from Genesis and Stardust missions of NASA\'s Discovery Program require quantitative analysis at sensitivity levels unattainable to any existing analytical technique. In response to the needs of the semissions, we have recently designed and built at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) a new time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ToF MS) with significantly improved sensitivity. Just recently, this new mass spectrometer was attached to the vacuum ultra-violet free electron laser (FEL) built at ANL\'s Advanced Photon Source which is able to produce coherent radiation at energies as high as 15.5 eV (80 nm). By combining our newly designed ToF MS with the FEL, a unique type of FEL Postionisation Secondary Neutral Mass Spectrometry instrument has been created that is capable of single-photon ionisation of most atoms and molecules. In this talk I will describe the FEL concept and the application of VUV FELs in surface analysis. I will also present results from the first measurements on our new instrument and talk about some challenges of NASA\'s Genesis and Stardust missions.