Quadrupole versus magnetic sector glow discharge mass spectrometry: comparison of quantitative analytical capabilities

The glow discharge (GD) ion source has developed rapidly over the last several years as a versatile mass spectrometric ion source for complete elemental characterization of metal alloys at sub-ppm concentrations. Recently, the GD ion source has been coupled with a quadrupole mass spectrometer, which allows fast mass scanning with detection limits of sub-ppm levels and is suitable for production control and rapid characterization of 3N–5N pure materials. In this work, a comparison has been made between the well-established GD with a mass spectrometry double focusing magnetic sector mass spectrometer and the GD quadrupole mass spectrometer, including basic studies on polyatomic-ion abundances, stability of relative sensitivity factors and a direct comparison of analytical results on several materials.