Method of N-15 analysis by mass-spectroscopy on ion implanter MPB-200

The industrial implanter MPB-200 has been modified to a light-isotope mass spectrometer. Mass-resolution has been improved by combination of quadrupole focusing system and a collimator with additional scattering shielding. Single beam method has been set up, in which mass-spectrum are obtained by scanning magnetic field of the separator. A start-stop control system has been added to operate automatically the magnet and registration system, from which signals are transferred to a XT/AT computer for saving and analysis. The mass-resolution is satisfactory for analysis of light isotopes with mass number A less than 40. A testing measurement has been done with standard samples of natural and enriched N-15 isotope, at acceleration energy of 50 keV, beam current less than 100 nA, vacuum of 4x10E-6 and collimator's shell of 1 mm. Obtained resolution and background condition allowed to achieve a good linear dependence of relative isotope ratio data vs real abundance in the range from natural 0.365% to 5.0% with a 3% error (96% of reliability). Routine N-15 may achieve (5-10)% accuracy by a 7-10 minutes measurement for every sample. Sensitivity of the mass-spectrometer is better almost by one order in comparing with one of emission spectrometers. The new mass-spectroscopy system is applied to research in agriculture, biology and environmental study. (author). 4 refs, 4 figs