Stored waveform inverse Fourier transform (SWIFT) ion excitation in trapped-ion mass spectometry: Theory and applications

Abstract

Stored waveform excitation produced by inverse Fourier transformation of a specified magnitude/phase excitation spectrum offers the most general and versatile means for broadband mass-selective excitation and ejection in Penning (FT-ICR) and Paul (quadrupole) ion trap mass spectrometry. Since the last comprehensive review of SWIFT excitation in 1987, the technique has been adopted, modified, and extended widely in both the ICR and quadrupole ion trap communities. Here, we review the principles, variations, algorithms, hardware implementation, and some applications of SWIFT for both ICR and quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry. We show that the most desirable SWIFT waveform is that optimized to reduce both the time-domain SWIFT maximum amplitude and the amplitude near the start and end of the SWIFT waveform. We examine the “true” magnitude excitation spectrum, obtained by zero-filling and forward Fourier transforming the SWIFT time-domain waveform, in order to evaluate the trade-off between spectral magnitude uniformity and frequency (mass) selectivity. Apodization of the SWIFT waveform is optimally conducted by smoothing the excitation magnitude spectrum prior to generation of the SWIFT waveform by inverse FT. When (as for broadband ejection in a quadrupole ion trap) it is important that ions be excited near-simultaneously over a wide mass range, the phase spectrum (before inverse FT to generate the SWIFT waveform) may be overmodulated or randomly modulated (“filtered noise field”), with the recognition that very substantial non-uniformity in the “true” excitation magnitude spectrum will result.