Abstract: An apparatus which mounts a sample in a vacuum chamber, heats the sample, and analyzes the gas generated from the sample. A loading lock mechanism, enables the vacuum chamber to be maintained at a vacuum even when a measurement is not conducted, and even when a sample is introduced/discharged in/from the chamber, thereby minimizing the background noises and increasing detection performance.

Abstract: In a thermal desorption gas spectrometer in which samples placed on a sample stage within a vacuum chamber are heated by irradiation with infrared rays, and in which mass is analyzed by detecting desorbed gas by means of a mass spectrometer, there is provided a processing circuit which takes in the electrical signal that is output by the mass spectrometer. The intensity of this signal is continuously recorded, for each mass of a detected substance, as a function of temperature (or of elapsed time) from the start of heating of the sample to the temperature at which the amount of desorbed gas from the sample becomes extremely small. This signal intensity is integrated with respect to temperature (or time) for each mass. The absolute value of the number of molecules can be obtained by comparing these integrated values with the value obtained for a standard sample.