Method and apparatus for ionization via interaction with metastable species

1. An apparatus for analyzing a sample material, comprising:

a desorption mechanism configured to desorb molecules from the sample material;

a metastable generator separate from the desorption mechanism and configured to generate a metastable species; and

an interaction region configured for metastable species ionization of the desorbed molecules so as to produce gas-phase ions of the sample material.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a mass analyzer configured to detect a mass of the gas-phase ions.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the mass analyzer comprises at least one of a three-dimensional ion trap, a linear ion trap, a quadrupole mass spectrometer, a Fourier transform ICR mass spectrometer, a magnetic sector mass spectrometer, a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, ion mobility mass spectrometer, or a tandem mass spectrometer.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the desorption mechanism comprises a laser beam source.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the desorption mechanism is configured to desorb said molecules at or near atmospheric pressure.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the desorption mechanism is configured to desorb said molecules at intermediate vacuum of 100 Torr to 1×10 −3 Torr.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the desorption mechanism is configured to desorb said molecules at pressures below 1×10 −3 Torr.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sample material comprises a matrix for absorption of an incident laser beam.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator comprises:

an electrical discharge for generation of atomic or molecular metastable species.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the electrical discharge comprises:

at least one of a microwave discharge, an inductively-coupled discharge, capacitively-coupled discharge, a glow discharge, or a corona discharge.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the electrical discharge comprises:

a pulsed electrical discharge.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the electrical discharge is configured to include a noble gas.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the electrical discharge is configured to include inorganic molecules.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator comprises an electrical discharge at 10 mTorr to 100 mTorr.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator comprises an electrical discharge at 100 mTorr to 1 Torr.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator comprises an electrical discharge at 1 Torr to 10 Torr.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator comprises an electrical discharge at 10 Torr to 100 Torr.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator comprises an electrical discharge at 100 Torr to 1000 Torr.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator is configured to control a duration of metastable species injection into said interaction region.

20. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator is configured to control a duration of metastable species injection into said interaction region by controlling a duration of an electrical discharge producing the metastable species.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator comprises an electrical discharge region disposed apart from the interaction region.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , further comprising:

an electrically biasable electrode configured to collect charged species from the electrical discharge region so as to reduce transport of the charged species into the interaction region.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the electrically biasable electrode is disposed off an axis between the electrical discharge region and the interaction region.

24. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the laser beam source is configured to generate a pulsed laser beam.

25. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metastable generator is configured to heat a flow of metastable species to temperatures of 50-500° C.

26. An apparatus for analyzing a sample material, comprising:

a desorption mechanism configured to laser desorb molecules from a sample material;

a metastable generator configured to generate a metastable species; and

an interaction region configured for metastable species ionization of the desorbed molecules so as to produce gas-phase ions of the sample material.

27. An apparatus for analyzing a sample material, comprising:

a desorption mechanism configured to desorb molecules from a sample material;

a metastable generator configured to generate a pulse of metastable species; and

an interaction region configured for metastable species ionization of the desorbed molecules so as to produce gas-phase ions of the sample material.