Surface Chemistry Studies with Ion Beams and Lasers

Laser postionization methods are used to detect and identify neutral species desorbing from surfaces bombarded with energetic ions in this research project supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program. Professor Nicholas Winograd's group at the Pennsylvania State University is investigating the basic processes of ion induced desorption and the dynamics of matrix assisted desorption and ionization of species from molecular surfaces. The research focusses on the use of these methods for the compositional and structural characterization of organic, polymeric, and biological surfaces. Both fundamental understanding and method development are goals of this research project. Experimental measurements are combined with state of the art computational studies of the trajectories of the desorbed ions, to provide a more complete understanding of the ion induced desorption process.

The structural characterization of molecular surfaces is essential to developing an understanding of the properties of materials ranging from polymeric surfaces to biological membranes. The goal of this research project at the Pennsylvania State University is to develop the basic understanding that is needed to implement ion desorption mass spectrometry and ion imaging methods for the characterization of these important material surfaces. A combination of fundamental research and method development characterizes this project.