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A curved‐field reflectron for improved energy focusing of product ions in time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry
Author(s) -
Cornish Timothy J.,
Cotter Robert J.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.1290071114
Subject(s) - reflectron , chemistry , mass spectrometry , ion , tandem mass spectrometry , dissociation (chemistry) , time of flight , collision induced dissociation , analytical chemistry (journal) , time of flight mass spectrometry , ionization , chromatography , organic chemistry
A new type of curved‐field reflectron has been developed for the energy focusing of ions formed after initial acceleration in time‐of‐flight (TOF) mass spectrometers. These include ions generated in the dissociation region of a tandem TOF, as well as metastable decay products formed in the field‐free drift region prior to their reflection. Unlike conventional linear‐field reflectrons, which focus product ions to different focal lengths that are proportional to the mass (energy) of the fragment, the new curved‐field reflectron energy focuses all ions to within a small region near the exit of the reflectron. Thus, the collection of resolved fragment peaks is possible without scanning or stepping the potential gradient of the reflectron, enabling faster acquisition of the production spectrum and, more importantly, true multiplex recording of the spectra from each ionization event. Theoretical considerations of the design are discussed along with an evaluation of collision‐induced dissociation data, demonstrating the performance of the new reflectron in a tandem TOF instrument.