| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SUGITA Seiji GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, RES.ASSOC., 大学院・理学系研究科, 助手 (80313203)
SASAKI Sho GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, ASSOC. PROF., 大学院・理学系研究科, 助教授 (10183823)
IWAI Takeo RES. CENT. NUCL. SCI. TEC., RES.ASSOC., 原子力研究総合センター, 助手 (30272529)
OHASHI Hideo TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF FISHERY, PROF., 水産学部, 教授 (40134647)
YANO Hajime INST. SPACE ASTRON. SCI., RES.ASSOC., 惑星科学, 助手 (00321571)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
In order to investigate of hypervelocity microparticles (dust) in space, we have been developing a microparticle ion source, a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer for element analysis of dust particles and a PZT piezoelectric material as a real time dust detector. We have made performance tests of these instruments by impacting hypervelocity micro-particles with a 3.75 MV Van de Graaff accelerator at HIT (High Fluence Irradiation Facility, University of Tokyo). C, Ag, Ni and Fe microparticles of 0.2-10 μm in diameter are accelerated to the velocity range from 5 to 20 km/s, which is comparable to the velocity of microparticles in space.
First, we have developed a new type of microparticle ion source which has enabled about 4 times longer operation time than ordinary one has done. Second, two kinds of reflected types of TOF mass spectrometers were tested their performance from the view point of mass resolution. The test results showed the reflected type TOF-MS with curved potential had higher mass resolution than that with parallel potential by factor 2 or 3. Moreover the TOF spectra of the curved potential type showed the higher detection efficiency, and the value was 10 times higher than that of the parallel reflectron TOF-MS. Third, the PZT elements have been testing as a microparticle detector. It is interesting to note that the PZT detector was sensitive to Xe ion beam, whose energy was the order of 10erg. This meant a possibility to detect hypervelocity particles, whose mass and velocity are of around 10pg and 10km/s, respectively. Experimental results were as follows ; (1) the PZT detector was found to be sensitive to particles, whose mass ranged from 0.01 to 100pg, and the velocity from 2 to 20 km/s, (2) the output voltage increased with increasing the kinetic energy of the particles.
|
