A quadrupole mass spectrometer with enhanced sensitivity and mass resolving power

摘要

A novel method and mass spectrometer apparatus is introduced to spatially and temporally resolve images of one or more ion exit patterns of a multipole instrument. In particular the methods and structures of the present invention measures the ion current as a function of time and spatial displacement in the beam cross section of a quadrupole mass filter via an arrayed detector. The linearity of the detected quadrupole ion current in combination with it reproducible spatial temporal structure enables the deconvolution of the contributions of signals from individual ion species in complex mixtures where both sensitivity and mass resolving power are essential.