Molecular Shape Detection for Chemical Analysis

Rydberg Fingerprint Spectroscopy has recently been discovered as a tool to identify molecular shapes. Ryon Technologies, Inc. was founded to bring this exciting new technology to markets as a shape sensitive detector that can be interfaced with existing mass spectrometry instrumentation. In Phase 1 the feasibility of such a detector was confirmed. During Phase 2, a prototype instrument will be contructed and tested. This prototype will be interfaced with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, e.g. the Bruker-Daltonics micrOTOF. The Rydberg states will be generated by photoexcitation. The binding energies of these states will then be measured with a novel electron energy analyzer. Once the prototype is operational, a limited fingerprint library will be generated and the shape sensitivity will be demonstrated by comparing samples against this library.