An excimer-based FAIMS detector for detection of ultra-low concentration of explosives

A new method of explosives detection based on the field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) and ionization by an excimer emitter has been developed jointly with a portable detector. The excimer emitter differs from usual UVionizing lamps by mechanism of emitting, energy and spectral characteristics. The developed and applied Ar2-excimer emitter has the working volume of 1 cm, consuming power 0.6 W, the energy of photons of about 10 eV (λ=126 nm), the FWHM radiation spectrum of 10 nm and emits more than 10 photon per second that is two orders of magnitude higher than UV-lamp of the same working volume emits. This also exceeds by an order of magnitude the quantity of photons per second for 10-Hz solid state YAG:Nd laser of 1mJ pulse energy at λ=266 nm that is also used to ionize the analyte. The Ar2-excimer ionizes explosives by direct ionization mechanism and through ionization of organic impurities. The developed Ar2-excimer-based ion source does not require cooling due to low level discharge current of emitter and is able to work with no repair more than 10000 hrs.