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    Efficient suboxide sources in oxide molecular beam epitaxy using mixed metal + oxide charges: The examples of SnO and Ga2O
    (Melville, NY : AIP Publ., 2020) Hoffmann, Georg; Budde, Melanie; Mazzolini, Piero; Bierwagend, Oliver
    Sources of suboxides, providing several advantages over metal sources for the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) of oxides, are conventionally realized by decomposing the corresponding oxide charge at extreme temperatures. By quadrupole mass spectrometry of the direct flux from an effusion cell, we compare this conventional approach to the reaction of a mixed oxide + metal charge as a source for suboxides with the examples of SnO2 + Sn → 2 SnO and Ga2O3 + 4 Ga → 3 Ga2O. The high decomposition temperatures of the pure oxide charge were found to produce a high parasitic oxygen background. In contrast, the mixed charges reacted at significantly lower temperatures, providing high suboxide fluxes without additional parasitic oxygen. For the SnO source, we found a significant fraction of Sn2O2 in the flux from the mixed charge that was basically absent in the flux from the pure oxide charge. We demonstrate the plasma-assisted MBE growth of SnO2 using the mixed Sn + SnO2 charge to require less activated oxygen and a significantly lower source temperature than the corresponding growth from a pure Sn charge. Thus, the sublimation of mixed metal + oxide charges provides an efficient suboxide source for the growth of oxides by MBE. Thermodynamic calculations predict this advantage for further oxides as well, e.g., SiO2, GeO2, Al2O3, In2O3, La2O3, and Pr2O3 © 2020 Author(s).
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    Surface acoustic wave nebulization improves compound selectivity of low-temperature plasma ionization for mass spectrometry
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2021) Kiontke, Andreas; Roudini, Mehrzad; Billig, Susan; Fakhfouri, Armaghan; Winkler, Andreas; Birkemeyer, Claudia
    Mass spectrometry coupled to low-temperature plasma ionization (LTPI) allows for immediate and easy analysis of compounds from the surface of a sample at ambient conditions. The efficiency of this process, however, strongly depends on the successful desorption of the analyte from the surface to the gas phase. Whilst conventional sample heating can improve analyte desorption, heating is not desirable with respect to the stability of thermally labile analytes. In this study using aromatic amines as model compounds, we demonstrate that (1) surface acoustic wave nebulization (SAWN) can significantly improve compound desorption for LTPI without heating the sample. Furthermore, (2) SAWN-assisted LTPI shows a response enhancement up to a factor of 8 for polar compounds such as aminophenols and phenylenediamines suggesting a paradigm shift in the ionization mechanism. Additional assets of the new technique demonstrated here are (3) a reduced analyte selectivity (the interquartile range of the response decreased by a factor of 7)—a significant benefit in non-targeted analysis of complex samples—and (4) the possibility for automated online monitoring using an autosampler. Finally, (5) the small size of the microfluidic SAWN-chip enables the implementation of the method into miniaturized, mobile LTPI probes.