Multipole ion guides utilizing segmented and helical electrodes, and related systems and methods

Abstract

An ion guide generates a multipole radio frequency (RF) field to radially confine ions to an ion beam along a guide axis as the ions are transmitted through the ion guide. The effective potential of the RF field has a magnitude on the guide axis that is independent of axial position along the guide axis, and presents no potential wells on-axis. The ion guide may include a plurality of axially spaced electrodes partitioned into transversely spaced segments. Alternatively, the ion guide may include a plurality of helical electrodes wound about the guide axis.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to ion guides comprising guides, conduits, funnels, collision cells, drift cells, converging devices, which may for example be used in spectrometers such as mass spectrometers and ion mobility spectrometers. Background technique [0002] A mass spectrometer (MS) system generally consists of an ion source for ionizing the molecules of a sample of interest, followed by one or more ion processing devices that provide various functions, followed by a system for different mass-to-charge ratios (or m / z-ratio, or more simply "mass"), a mass analyzer that separates it, followed by an ion detector where the mass-sorted ions arrive. MS analysis produces a mass spectrum, which is a series of peaks indicating the relative abundance of detected ions as a function of their m / z ratio. [0003] An ion guide is an example of an ion processing device typically located in the process flow between an ion source and a mass analyzer. The ion...

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Problems solved by technology

Therefore, it is difficult to design an ion funnel that will work well for low mass ions commonly encounte

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