Articles you may be interested inA field-programmable-gate-array based time digitizer for the time-of-flight mass spectrometry Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 045115 (2014); 10.1063/1.4870922 Time-of-flight mass spectrometry for time-resolved measurements Rev. Sci. Instrum. 78, 034103 (2007); 10.1063/1.2712797 Correction of dead time effects in timeofflight mass spectrometry J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 12, 405 (1994); 10.1116/1.579255 MASTIF: Mass analysis of secondaries by timeofflight technique. A new approach to secondary ion mass spectrometry Rev. Sci. Instrum. 60, 3188 (1989); 10.1063/1.1140550Timeofflight secondary ion mass spectrometry of polymer materials Modulation of an ion beam is crucial to several applications in time-of-flight ͑TOF͒ mass spectrometry, especially for tandem TOF instruments which require selection of a particular precursor m/z ͑mass to charge͒ value prior to fragmentation. Here we present a detailed description of an ''interleaved comb'' ion deflection gate device with suitable electronics which offers a performance advantage over the more commonly used deflection plate devices. We demonstrate unit mass resolution for selection to m/z 167 in the tandem TOF instrument constructed in our laboratory. Calculations suggest that the real time of unit resolution for our experimental arrangement is greater than 300.

A tandem time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer has been designed to obtain complete MS/MS spectra from compounds eluting from a gas chromatograph. This application requires high spectral generation rate, unit mass resolution for both precursor selection and product spectra, and efficient ion utilization. These objectives are achieved by reflectron TOF mass separation in both stages and laser photoinduced dissociation as the ion fragmentation method. Careful timing of the laser pulse relative to ion extraction allows ions of a single m/z value up to m/z 1000 to be photodissociated while ions with adjacent m/z values are essentially unaffected. The convergent foci of the ion packet and laser pulse results in ion fragmentation efficiencies as high as 79%. An ion gate prevents the nonselected precursor ions from convoluting the product spectra. Product spectra can be generated at the maximum laser repetition rate (currently 200 Hz). To achieve unit mass resolution for all product m/z values simultaneously, a novel reflectron was designed for the second TOF stage.

High efficiency photo-induced dissociation (PID) has been demonstrated in a tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometer. This instrument focuses isomass ion packets to temporal and spatial dimensions similar to those of the focused laser pulses from a high power excimer laser. This high density overlap of photons and ions yields highly efficient fragmentation and also provides high resolution selection of specific precursor ion mass-to-charge ratio values. Using 193 nm photon excitation of the molecular ion of bromobenzene (m/z = 1561, fragmentation, collection, and PID efficiencies af 79%, 132%, and 104%, respectively, were obtained. Characteristic fragmentations of toluene, nitrobenzene, acetophenone, triethylamine, N,N-diethylformamide, N-methylacetamide, and cyclohexene have also been demonstrated.

A novel method for the design of reflections capable of focusing large kinetic energy ranges is presented. The design method itself is a numerical approach that provides a geometrically flexible alternative to traditional analytical design solutions. This design method has been used to produce a reflectron that provides unit mass resolution for product spectra in a tandem reflectron time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer despite a kinetic energy range of 1950-2700 eV. In this application, the systematic progression of reflectron design results in a practical, nonlinear field reflectron with the use of only two grids. Design improvements are proposed for more flexible systems, although geometric constraints in the current instrument limit their experimental evaluation.

Good mass resolution can be difficult to achieve in time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) when the analysis area is large or when the surface being analyzed is rough. In most cases, a significant improvement in mass resolution can be achieved by postacquisition processing of raw data. Methods are presented in which spectra are extracted from smaller regions within the original analysis area, recalibrated, and selectively summed to produce spectra with higher mass resolution than the original. No hardware modifications or specialized instrument tuning are required. The methods can be extended to convert the original raw file into a new raw file containing high mass resolution data. To our knowledge, this is the first report of conversion of a low mass resolution raw file into a high mass resolution raw file using only the data contained within the low mass resolution raw file. These methods are applicable to any material but are expected to be particularly useful in analysis of difficult samples such as fibers, powders, and freeze-dried biological specimens.