Time Resolution Improvement of Superconducting NbN Stripline Detectors for Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

We have applied superconducting stripline detectors (SSLDs) for time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) as molecule detectors. Two SSLDs, which consist of 7-nm-thick niobium nitride (NbN) striplines with different linewidths of 200 or 300 nm on a MgO substrate, were fabricated to investigate the effects of kinetic inductance on time resolution. We have observed ultrafast ion detection signals with risetimes of 360–640 ps, and successfully obtained mass spectra for a peptide, Angiotensin I, and a protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA) at an energy of 17.5 keV. It has been confirmed that the response time is governed by the kinetic inductance of the nano-striplines.