Direct Observation of Trapping Motion in Elongated Fourier-Transform Mass Spectrometry Trapped Ion Cells

Abstract

Measurements by Fourier-transform mass spectrometry (FTMS) have been used to measure trapping oscillation profiles in elongated trapped ion cells of length 10–43 cm. Trapping periods extracted from these profiles are found to vary linearly with cell length of elongated cells. This is in contrast with the prediction based on a quadrupolar approximation of the electric field that trapping period should increase exponentially with increased cell length. An alternate analytical expression for trapping motion is derived that better accounts for the motion of ions with sufficient energy to approach the trap plates. Calculated trapping frequencies are within a few percent of values determined from ion trajectory simulations for any combination of cell length, trap potential, ion mass, and ion kinetic energy. The new expression also explains the experimentally determined trapping data obtained in elongated cells. This expression predicts an average axial energy near 0.6 eV for the ions that are preferentially detected by FTMS with the specific pulse sequence employed.