Orthogonal acceleration — a new direction for time-of-flight mass spectrometry: Fast, sensitive mass analysis for continuous ion sources

Abstract

The current renaissance of time-of-flight mass spectrometry involves mainly pulsed laser ion sources. In the mainstream of mass spectrometry where continuous ion sources are used, problems arising from dispersions in ion initial location, velocity and time, have hindered exploitation of the advantages of time-of-flight. Orthogonal acceleration is a method which overcomes these problems for most continuous ion sources and provides greater resolution and sensitivity than quadrupole or single-sector magnetic scanning analysers.