<p>Mass spectrometry is widely considered to be the gold standard of elemental analysis techniques due to its ability to resolve atomic and molecular and biological species. Expanding the application space of mass spectrometry often requires the need for portable or hand-held systems for use in field work or harsh environments. While only requiring “sufficient” mass resolution to meet the needs of their application space, these miniaturized systems suffer from poor signal to background ratio which limits their sensitivity as well as their usefulness in field applications. </p><p>Spatial aperture coding techniques have been used in optical spectroscopy to achieve large increases in signal intensity without compromising system resolution. In this work similar computational methods are used in the application of these techniques to the field of magnetic sector mass spectrometry. Gains in signal intensity of 10x and 4x were achieved for 1D and 2D coding techniques (respectively) using a simple 90 degree magnetic sector test setup. Initial compatibility with a higher mass resolution double focusing Mattauch-Herzog mass spectrograph is demonstrated experimentally and with high fidelity particle tracing simulations. A novel electric sector lens system was designed to stigmate high order coded aperture patterned beam which shows simulated gains in signal intensity of 50x are achievable using these techniques.</p> / Dissertation

The aim of this master's thesis is to explore and study dynamic aberration correction options in electron-beam lithography systems. For the calculations, the thesis uses the optical column of the BS600 electron-beam writer. The thesis focuses on corrections of the third order field curvature, astigmatism, and distortion aberrations of the currently used magnetic deflection system and a newly designed electrostatic deflection system. The parameters of the two deflection and correction systems were compared.