SBIR-STTR Award

Mass spectrometry is a technology with wide-ranging applications in defense and homeland security. The technique is widely applicable and exceedingly sensitive, but for many molecules there can be ambiguities regarding the isomeric and conformeric form. As the number of atoms in a molecule increases, the number of stable isomers raises dramatically. Recent research has shown that the binding energies of electrons in molecular Rydberg states are highly sensitive to the molecular shape, giving rise to a method to characterize molecular shapes using Rydberg states. In this project, the aim is to combine this Rydberg fingerprint spectroscopy with mass spectrometry, by measuring the Rydberg fingerprints of molecular ions, such as those in a mass spectrometer, using a newly developed detector. The two-dimensional output, with mass as one coordinate and the Rydberg fingerprint as the other, will find many uses in the identification of chemical and biological agents, explosives, environmental analysis, and industrial chemicals.

Keywords:
Molecular Analysis, Mass Spectrometry, Molecular Identification, Shape Sensitive Detection

Rydberg Fingerprint Spectroscopy has recently been discovered as a tool to identify molecular shapes. Ryon Technologies, Inc. was founded to bring this exciting new technology to markets as a shape sensitive detector that can be interfaced with existing mass spectrometry instrumentation. In Phase 1 the feasibility of such a detector was confirmed. During Phase 2, a prototype instrument will be contructed and tested. This prototype will be interfaced with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, e.g. the Bruker-Daltonics micrOTOF. The Rydberg states will be generated by photoexcitation. The binding energies of these states will then be measured with a novel electron energy analyzer. Once the prototype is operational, a limited fingerprint library will be generated and the shape sensitivity will be demonstrated by comparing samples against this library.

Keywords:
Chemical Analysis, Identification Of Trace Chemicals, Rydberg Fingerprint Spectroscopy, Shape Sensit