Optimized Gas Flow Dynamics in a Closed Cell for Efficient Material Collection under an AFM tip

Spatially resolved chemical imaging is critical to progress in applications ranging from materials science to medicine where visualizing chemical distributions with nanoscale resolution is import to tuning material functionality as well as understand signaling pathways. Achieving the highest possible spatial resolution in mass spectrometry chemical imaging relies on the ability to effectively sample, collect, ionize and transport material from the sampling site to the mass spectrometer. When using an AFM tip to locally thermally desorb material from the surface the problem as in the case of thermal desorption AFM-MS, effectively collecting and transporting the desorbed material is even more challenging since the sampling volumes are on the order between 5um-100nm and the sampled/desorbed material is located under an AFM cantilever precluding easy extraction. The invention provides a flow cell design that is optimized for material collection and transport from under the AFM tip.

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