Development of a superconducting-phase-transition thermometer (SPT) for the application in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS) for heavy-mass molecules

We report on a newly developed detector based on a Superconducting-Phase-Transition Thermometer which is used in a Time-of-flight mass spectrometer for heavy molecules. It exhibits a sensitive area of 3.0 x 3.0 mm(2) and a time resolution of approximately 1.1 mus. First measurements with our setup on heavy proteins up to 150, 000 amu are presented. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.