From Atmosphere to Vacuum: New Approaches to Transporting Ions in Mass Spectrometry

摘要

A mass spectrometer has been developed that gently transports ions through multiple pressure stages prior to entering the analyzer region, yielding high sensitivity and minimal need for ion path optimization. These results are explained in terms of momentum transfer and ion entrainment in a flow, with flow having a large effect on the ion trajectories. This has large implications for ease of use. Numerical analysis of the gas flow is provided, aiding in the visualization of the gas flow from stage to stage. Overall, these results suggest that gentle multistage extraction minimizes losses due to scattering and chemical background due to cluster formation.