Molecular beam sampling system with very high beam-to-background ratio: the rotating skimmer concept

A novel method of reducing the background pressure in a vacuum system used for sampling a molecular beam from a high pressure region is presented. A triple differential pumping stage is constructed with a chopper with rotating skimmer within the first pumping stage, which serves effectively as a valve separating periodically the vacuum system from the ambient environment. The mass spectrometry measurement of the species in the molecular beam show an excellent beam-to-background ratio of 14 and a detection limit below 1 ppm. The potential of this method for detection of low density reactive species in atmospheric pressure plasmas is demonstrated for the detection of oxygen atoms generated in an atmospheric pressure microplasma source.