Laser systems are widely used in mass spectrometry as sample probes and ionization sources. Mid-infrared lasers are particularly suitable for analysis of high water content samples such as animal and plant tissues, using water as a resonantly excited sacrificial matrix. Commercially available mid-IR lasers have historically been bulky and expensive due to cooling requirements. This work presents a novel air-cooled miniature mid-IR laser with adjustable burst-mode output and details an evaluation of its performance for mass spectrometry imaging. The miniature laser was found capable of generating sufficient energy for complete ablation of animal tissue in the context of an IR-MALDESI experiment with exogenously added ice matrix, yielding several hundred confident metabolite identifications.

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激光系统在质谱分析中广泛用作样品探针和电离源。使用水作为共振激发的牺牲基质，中红外激光特别适用于分析高含水量的样品，例如动植物。由于冷却要求，商业上可获得的中红外激光器历来是笨重的和昂贵的。这项工作提出了一种具有可调突发模式输出的新型风冷微型中红外激光器，并详细介绍了其在质谱成像中的性能评估。在IR-MALDESI实验（外源添加冰基质）的背景下，发现微型激光能够产生足够的能量来完全消融动物组织，从而鉴定出数百种可靠的代谢物。

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