TY - JOUR A1 - Bierstedt, Andreas A1 - Warschat, Carsten A1 - You, Yi A1 - Rurack, Knut A1 - Riedel, Jens T1 - Stimulated Raman scattering by intracavity mixing of nanosecond laser excitation and fluorescence in acoustically levitated droplets JF - Analytical Methods N2 - Raman spectroscopy is becoming a commonly used, powerful tool for structural elucidation and species identification of small liquid samples, e.g. in droplet-based digital microfluidic devices. Due to the low scattering cross sections and the temporal restrictions dictated by the droplet flow, however, it depends on amplification strategies which often come at a cost. In the case of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), this can be an enhanced susceptibility towards memory effects and cross talk, whereas resonant and/or stimulated Raman techniques require higher instrumental sophistication, such as tunable lasers or the high electromagnetic field strengths which are typically provided by femtosecond lasers. Here, an alternative instrumental approach is discussed, in which stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is achieved using the single fixed wavelength output of an inexpensive diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) nanosecond laser. The required field strengths are realized by an effective light trapping in a resonator mode inside the interrogated droplets, while the resonant light required for the stimulation is provided by the fluorescence signal of an admixed laser dye. To elucidate the underlying optical processes, proof-of-concept experiments are conducted on acoustically levitated droplets, mimicking a highly reproducible and stable digital fluidic system. By using isotope-labeled compounds, the assignment of the emitted radiation as Raman scattering is firmly corroborated. A direct comparison reveals an amplification of the usually weak spontaneous Stokes emission by up to five orders of magnitude. Further investigation of the optical power dependence reveals the resulting gain to depend on the intensity of both, the input laser fluence and the concentration of the admixed fluorophore, leaving SRS as the only feasible amplification mechanism. While in this study stable large droplets have been studied, the underlying principles also hold true for smaller droplets, in which case significantly lower laser pulse energy is required. Since DPSS lasers are readily available with high repetition rates, the presented detection strategy bears a huge potential for fast online identification and characterization routines in digital microfluidic devices. KW - Ultrasonic levitation KW - Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/D0AY01504K VL - 12 IS - 42 SP - 5046 EP - 5054 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-51566 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stindt, Arne A1 - Warschat, Carsten A1 - Bierstedt, Andreas A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Riedel, Jens T1 - Characterisation of an inexpensive sonic spray ionisation source using laser induced fluorescence imaging and mass spectrometry JF - European journal of mass spectrometry N2 - A commercially available airbrush gun as a new source for spray ionization is presented. It is best operated employing moderate stagnation pressures, resulting in a sonic gas flow. A mass spectrometric investigation on the amino acid lysine and several peptides reveals that this inexpensive approach results in reproducible mass spectra. The ion patterns strongly resemble the results from other studies obtained with custom made sonic spray vaporizers. The patterns as well resemble the mass spectra recorded with electrospray devices. For a better understanding of the vaporization process, the mass spectrometry experiments are accompanied by laser induced fluorescence experiments. Inverse Abel transform of the obtained fluorescence maps allows the determination of the full 3D distribution of the spray cone. Furthermore, via exploitation of the solvatochromism of the used dye the solvation state distribution can be visualized. In addition, expansion parameters like droplet size and velocity are obtained by laser stroboscopy. The experiments demonstrate that the analyte is hardly desolvated throughout the expansion. This indicates a subsequent vaporization of the residual solvent in the intermediate pressure region of the mass spectrometer. KW - Sonic spray ionization KW - Mass spectrometry KW - Solvatochromism KW - Inverse Abel Transform KW - Sonic spray KW - Airbrush KW - Laser induced fluorescence PY - 2014 DO - https://doi.org/10.1255/ejms.1242 SN - 1469-0667 SN - 1356-1049 SN - 1365-0718 VL - 20 IS - 1 SP - 21 EP - 29 PB - IM Publications CY - Chichester AN - OPUS4-30403 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bierstedt, Andreas A1 - Stindt, Arne A1 - Warschat, Carsten A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Riedel, Jens T1 - High repetition rate atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization in combination with liquid matrices JF - European journal of mass spectrometry N2 - One major drawback of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) is still the relatively poor pulse-to-pulse reproducibility of the signal intensity. This problem, caused by insufficient homogeneity in the matrix/analyte co-crystallization, is usually circumvented by averaging the detected ion intensity over several shots. However, during the consecutive laser pulses, the applied matrix gets depleted and only a number of subsequent experiments can be done on the same sample spot. In order to achieve the desired long-term stability in combination with a sufficient pulse-to-pulse reproducibility, recently liquid MALDI matrices have been introduced. This contribution demonstrates the promising combination of liquid matrices with high repetition rate lasers for atmospheric pressure MALDI (AP-MALDI). To demonstrate the robustness of the new approach, two different kinds of liquid matrices were used in combination with both a typical flashlamp pumped 15 Hz laser and a diode pumped solid state laser operated at 5 kHz. The latter showed a stable ion signal over more than 3,500,000 consecutive laser pulses. KW - AP-MALDI KW - Liquid matrix KW - High repetition rate KW - Ionic liquid KW - DPSS laser PY - 2014 DO - https://doi.org/10.1255/ejms.1292 SN - 1469-0667 SN - 1356-1049 SN - 1365-0718 VL - 20 IS - 5 SP - 367 EP - 374 PB - IM Publications CY - Chichester AN - OPUS4-32510 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -