Cluster assisted soft-landing hub (CLASH): An instrument for surface desorption and deposition using a pulsed cluster ion source

The soft desorption and landing of organic molecules using large cluster ions have been demonstrated on ToF-SIMS analytical instruments equipped with a gas cluster ion source. A natural next step following this proof-of-concept is the development of a dedicated instrument for cluster assisted soft-landing. In this work, we present the design and conception of CLASH (Cluster Assisted Soft Landing Hub), an instrument equipped with a pulsed ion cluster source operated at 200 Hz to produce cluster ions. Distributions centered around Ar1650+ and (CO2)2100+ were accelerated to 4.5 keV to sputter and deposit α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid from targeted samples onto collector surfaces. We detail, through experiments and SIMION (ion optics software) simulations, all components of the instrument and the challenges encountered in cluster formation, ionization, acceleration, and detection.